Unconventional Peace in Everyday Gensokyo: OWS
by The Black-White
Summary: Exactly what the title implies, ze. What? It doesn't make much sense? Shows what you know! Oh yeah, O.W.S. would stand for, Ordinary Witch Saga. No incidents happening right now, but try to enjoy your stay in Gensokyo anyways, ze!
1. Under the weather

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"M-morning already…?"

Letting out a restless sigh, the young girl gave her annoying alarm clock a good smack and pressed her pillow further against her head. It was a futile, desperate attempt to block out the incessant sounds which had more or less plagued her the whole night... this time, the unusually aggressive wind was her great nemesis. Truth be told its whistling didn't really bother her—quite the contrary in fact—but the sounds which inevitably came with such troublesome weather was a completely different story. The windows rattled, the woodwork creaked and whined; even the front door managed to make enough noise to bother her despite it being shut and locked securely… not to mention the merciless waves of little noises her constantly growing collection of rare junk was making due to the wind. _No way… not another sleepless night…_

Yawning in defeat, the little witch tiredly pushed herself up from the bed, instinctively running her fingers through her thick blonde hair. Needless to say she felt completely exhausted and her eyelids weighed like anchors, but she needed to collect another batch of phantasmal mushrooms before the bowls of soup she had already mixed and blended solidified… otherwise the witch wouldn't be able to perform as many experiments as she had intended for the week—having already put off collecting yesterday morning due to lack of rest. From what she could tell however, that effort had gone down the drain as well.

"Could have just collected those mushrooms and accomplished the same thing, ze… nice going Marisa," The blonde girl known as Marisa muttered to herself, obviously a little irritated. She didn't really mind botching an experiment which, more or less was quite a frequent occurrence, but the simple thought that she couldn't function at a hundred percent bothered her immensely. Rubbing her eyes and letting out a good stretch, the witch willed herself to get out of bed… but just as she had finally mustered the strength to stand her right knee buckled under her weight and, with a dull thud, the girl found herself on the ground.

"Ah, ouch…" Marisa winced, curiously yet carefully poking her aching knee. She had completely forgotten about her little mishap during training yesterday… a bad fall from her broom. Still, she's had worse bumps than this one… which was exactly why she was now far more irritated than she had been moments ago. After all, an injury like this should have already healed by now! Or at the very least, healed to the point where it didn't hinder any of her daily activities. Perhaps she was simply caught off guard… _Yeah, that's probably it._

Trying her best to ignore the pain, the girl pulled herself back together and stood straight, a stubborn frown on her face. It most definitely hurt… but it didn't feel like anything she had to be concerned about. It probably just needed more time to heal, which meant she would need to limp around and try not to place too much weight on it. Sighing deeply, Marisa paced back and forth in an effort to find the best way to do so—which in other words meant being able to limp whilst retaining the image of being free of injury. However, the pain just seemed to piss her off even more, and she ended up placing even more weight on her injured leg than usual, making the pain worse out of spite. It didn't last however, and before long she was limping helplessly over to the sink. _Damn it!_

"…Ng, cold," The witch whined, splashing her face once more with the running water despite the complaint. It couldn't be helped; frigid weather always meant cold water… but that didn't mean she was going to punish herself by bathing in water this cold. In fact she had already left her prized mini-Hakkero to sit under her tub overnight, and since she didn't amplify the heat which normally emanated from her little furnace, the temperature of the water should be just right. The more she thought about it the more she wanted to just get out of her underwear and jump in… "The bath'll do me some good, ze."

But before Marisa could relax in the tub, she needed to check on the phantasmal mushroom soups first. It was always best to convert it into blocks of magic _fuel_ just as soon as it had solidified; otherwise it simply wasn't as effective in her experiments. Slowly limping her way to the kitchen, the witch finally stopped in front of an old wooden table with bowls of the aforementioned concoction lined up in rows. Each bowl of soup had a different color, and each color had its own unique effect. With a keen eye, Marisa already knew exactly what the finished blocks could be used for, as well as combinations she hadn't tried yet… nodding to herself, the witch grabbed an old book with a green cover resting on a chair next to the soup table and quickly flipped the pages until she reached her last entry, which was dated last week.

_Season 121, 4__th__ of the Long Month_

_Weekly experiment no. 3: Cure for a sprained thumb_

_Minimum requirement for success: Decent painkiller for a sprained thumb_

_Sprained my left thumb during a danmaku session with Reimu two days ago… she bandaged it up for me, but it hurts a ton and hasn't gone away yet. It hurts when I hold stuff too, so the experiment will probably take longer. Most of the soups I've boiled and blended for today have medicinal uses, except for a mix which I normally use to repair the house, 'cause it makes strong glue. All in all I'm pretty confident in the blocks I've collected. I'll definitely get a good result._

_Weekly experiment no. 3 result: Success (?)_

_As I predicted, the experiment took longer than usual. But my thumb feels great, and smells a little like mint. This is great stuff. Problem is, only my right thumb was affected. Left thumb still hurts a lot, and doesn't even smell like mint, which sucks. As always, applications directly to the affected body part have no effect, it must be ingested._

_Side effects: My stomach feels a little unsettled._

_Notes to remember: Perhaps direct application is best for these kinds of stuff. The mint smell is nice and relaxing… consider making tea, herbal oil or shampoo with this scent. It'll definitely sell._

Nodding once more, Marisa closed the book and gently dropped it back on the chair. Feeling the need to move her left thumb around after reading the entry, she noted that even though there was still a little pain, she could barely feel it now—not to mention she'd gotten rid of the bandages days ago. At the time she had actually considered returning it to the shrine maiden, since she might want it back or something… but Reimu probably wouldn't have appreciated the gesture. In fact the witch had a feeling she'd be sporting more than a sprained thumb if she had actually tried.

"…" Having successfully stared into nothing for the past couple of seconds, Marisa blinked and shook her head, frowning. _Eh, spaced out again… been happening a lot lately._

Peering once more at her soon-to-be blocks of magic fuel, the witch leaned forward and gently dipped a finger on one of the bowls. Cold and thick, but still quite wet. Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding; the witch felt a weight lift from her shoulders as she limped back towards the sink. She was afraid the chilly weather sped up the solidification process, but it seemed as though everything would still be ready late this afternoon, maybe even later… which gave her just the time she needed to collect more phantasmal mushrooms and perhaps mooch off a free meal at the Hakurei shrine. With her leg acting like a complete jerk though, who knew how long it would take to gather enough mushrooms… which was also very troublesome, because if she didn't gather enough edible mushrooms soon she'd be forced to shop in the village. After all, Reimu won't always be able to accommodate her. Well, that and she needed to give Alice a few more days; otherwise she'd still be fuming about the latest grimoire she 'borrowed'. _I don't see how she can be so mad… I mean she can have it back when I'm dead right?_

"When I'm dead, huh…" A few more seconds passed in thoughtful silence as the witch let out a lop-sided smile. She always threw that word around so casually, but really… who in their right mind would ever want to die? She supposed it had to happen sometime; she was a human after all… in fact that was probably the reason why she was so carefree and on the move. There was still so much she wanted to do, so many things waiting to be discovered and collected, magical experiments she wanted to perform… fortunately she caught herself before the seemingly downward spiral could take her any lower. Sighing out an exasperated sigh, the witch gently clapped both sides of her face twice in annoyance. "Gah! Why the hell am I even thinking about this…? Geez I'm morbid today, ze…"

_That's it, no more stalling! _Shaking her head (violently) in an effort to banish such thoughts from her head, the witch quickly limped over to the bathroom, removing her nightgown on the way and carelessly tossing the stripped clothing toward the edge of her bed—she was going to do the laundry soon anyway. "Bath-time, ze!"

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**Unconventional Peace in Everyday Gensokyo (Ordinary Witch Saga), Stage 1: "Under the weather."**

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"Ah, it's already dark out…" The Hakurei's only shrine maiden stated quietly, having snapped out of another one of her daydreams as she sat on the wooden floor on the edge of her house drinking tea, like she always did in boring days like this. The only thing today that was even remotely interesting was the wind, which had picked up quite a bit this week… but even then that was nothing too unusual. Summer had ended, fall was beginning, and winter would come soon enough; the early nights were already a telling sign. Of course with autumn came the nasty falling of leaves… which, thanks to the wind, now littered the empty grounds way ahead of schedule. And if there was something the miko hated more than boredom, it was work. "I'll sweep up tomorrow, I guess."

Instinctively reaching for her cup, Reimu brought the beverage close to her face and took in the tea's subtle aroma… already cold. Letting out a sigh, the shrine maiden placed it back on the tray beside the teapot, no longer up to finishing the cup. Honestly, what a depressing situation this was… leaves falling, darkness creeping in the horizon, no new incidents, cold tea, no donations (again). She had to admit though, even if this weather blocked her view of the stars, it was certainly nice out. Sure enough it was pretty darn cold, but there was always something about the night she appreciated. For one, on cold nights like this she had the perfect excuse to enjoy her kotatsu. _Speaking of which… the charcoal should be nice and toasty now._

Getting up and taking the tray with her, Reimu turned and walked toward the shōji of her house, looking back at the falling leaves one more time before taking off her shoes, sliding the door and letting herself in.

"Is it just me or is it even colder in here?" She said to herself, more out of irritation than surprise. Like the shrine itself, her house was never really any good at keeping the cold out. But then, all the more reason to enjoy her kotatsu really. Reimu seemed to smile at that—her first genuine smile today, as she headed over to her little kitchen and placed the tray on her table. The shrine maiden was just about ready to go relax when the sight of unwashed dishes caught her eye, the ones she remembered being too lazy to clean. "What I wouldn't give for dishes that washed themselves…"

Finally resolving to at least get everything cleaned up before taking it easy, she was about to do just that when her heightened senses picked up a small thud just outside her door.

"Oooi, Reimu…! Are you there, ze?"

_Like I'd be anywhere at this hour… besides, my shoes are right there,_ The miko thought amusedly, shaking her head. It was a little strange for her to come over at this hour. Couldn't say she was too happy to have her around either, but… she supposed it was all right. Nobody had stopped by today anyway, she could use some company. _Go ahead and barge in like you always do._

"I'm coming in…"

The shrine maiden heard the shōji slide open and smirked. She knew that girl all too well. However, her amusement quickly turned to annoyance when she heard the footsteps… the teeth grinding sound of shoes on her clean tatami flooring. "Hey, hey! How many times do we have to go through this, no shoes in here Marisa…!"

"Woops, sorry about that… I'll take'em off now, ze."

"Yeah…" Reimu replied, returning her attention to the dishes. That witch could be such a scatterbrain sometimes. Having instantly calmed down, she began scrubbing her bowl when a wince of pain followed by a small thump echoed from the living room. A spark of worry flashed across her eyes for a split-second, but she immediately quashed the feeling and went back to what she was doing. A few seconds later however she had already put the bowl down, wiped her hands and casually walked towards the living room to check up on the blonde girl. The shrine maiden found her slowly getting up with the help of her broom, before tossing her shoes out and sliding the shōji closed. The witch then turned to look at her with the same trademark grin plastered on her face. Reimu's eyes widened at the sight.

"Konnichiwa."

"Konbanwa," The raven-haired girl corrected, crossing her arms disapprovingly… she looked terrible. That carefree grin of hers wasn't fooling anybody tonight, the dark circles under her eyes and fragile looking form betrayed her prideful aura completely. Was she sick? Reimu didn't want to trouble herself by pondering about such things, but… for some crazy reason she couldn't help but worry when it came to this idiot. "How's your thumb?"

"Much better," The witch replied, proving it by switching her basket of phantasmal mushrooms to her right hand and giving Reimu a thumbs up, moving it around in circles for good measure. It probably would've taken longer to heal had she not bandaged it up… but then it was only fair, she was the one who gave her that sprain in the first place anyway. "Feels like it never happened, ze."

"All right," Reimu nodded, her eyes resting at the girl's basket. She must have spent all day picking them if she visited her at this late hour with the mushrooms still in hand… she was shivering as well, from the looks of it. The shrine maiden didn't even have to ask, but she was going to anyway. "Hungry?"

"…Yeah."

"Okay… I'll see what I can fix up. And stay on the kotatsu, it's biting cold tonight," Reimu's eyes softened as the witch nodded gratefully and took off her hat, wordlessly heading toward the aforementioned table. Seemed like she was trying her best to hide it, but she was sporting quite the limp as well… that would explain her fall earlier, then. "What happened to your leg?"

"Eh… nothing," Marisa replied, trying her best not to look her friend in the eyes. She should've known that Reimu would see through it… stupid embarrassing injury. And she was hiding the limp pretty well too. But then again, spending all that time picking mushrooms made the pain a little harder to bear so… "Just a little bump, that's all."

"If you say so," Reimu shrugged, not entirely convinced, but dropping it for now. It didn't seem like the witch wanted to talk about it anyway, and she was never really one to force anything out of anybody unless it was absolutely necessary. Turning back to the kitchen, the shrine maiden realized that she didn't have much left in the way of food either, and turned her head to look at Marisa once again… "I know you don't like nattō, but that's all I have left over tonight."

"Ah… it's fine, ze," The witch replied, just happy to have something to eat… of course she tried her best not to seem too enthusiastic; it was embarrassing enough to come at this hour expecting some food. Reimu was right though, she wasn't too fond of it… but right now she could think of worse things she would probably still eat at this state. Gingerly squatting and sliding her legs under the kotatsu's blanket, Marisa couldn't help but close her eyes in comfort as the warmth spread like a godsend from her legs to her stomach… another little detail she decided against telling the shrine maiden was the fact that she'd been freezing cold. Placing the basket of mushrooms on the edge of the table and her hat beside her, the tired girl leaned backwards, resting her elbows on the ground for support. "Thanks."

"Mm…" Reimu nodded, saying nothing more as she walked back into the kitchen. This wasn't a good sign… picky Marisa, agreeing to eat nattō without a word of protest? Not a very good sign indeed. She had her doubts earlier, but now she was convinced the girl didn't have a single bite to eat today. What the heck was that witch thinking anyway? What if the shrine maiden didn't have any food left over? Well… there was always Alice she supposed. Still, she should really think ahead. Sighing for the hundredth time today, Reimu checked on the amount of rice she still had. Thankfully there was more than enough, though she recalled it being a little too sticky for her tastes… probably just didn't soak it enough before boiling. Still, it tasted okay, and now all she needed to do was heat it a little. As for the nattō, she didn't really order too much of the stuff, but there was enough for a single meal at least. All in all, it shouldn't take too long to prepare, especially since she already had some tea ready on the table. "It'll take about ten to fifteen minutes, all right?"

The shrine maiden didn't hear an answer, but that was fine.

A little over ten minutes later, everything was ready. She had decided to just put the nattō on a separate plate instead of on top of the heated rice, which she had scooped up onto a bowl. A simple meal at best, but it was quite healthy. Since she didn't bother preparing a tray for the food, Reimu took the tray holding the tea first and walked back to the living room, only to find the witch on her side, sleeping soundly on the ground. Once again the shrine maiden's eyes softened at the sight, quietly walking over to Marisa and placing the tray on the kotatsu, before walking back to the kitchen and doing the same thing with the food, which of course had the all-important pair of chopsticks already separated and stuck on the rice. "Marisa? Time to eat."

The blonde girl replied with an unintelligible murmur.

An unreadable emotion flashed across Reimu's face as she knelt beside her, gently moving some of the stray hair away from the witch's face and resting the back of her hand on the young girl's forehead. Not too hot fortunately, but still enough to be considered a fever. Part of the shrine maiden was content to just let her sleep, but at the same time she needed to eat _something_ today. She considered shaking the witch awake when her eyes opened slowly; most likely because of the raven-haired girl's hand still on her forehead… needless to say she snatched it back in an instant lest things became awkward. "I… don't mind you sleeping, but at least eat what I made for you first."

Nodding drowsily, the blonde witch complied and slowly sat back up, rubbing her eyes. That was the first time she'd been able to get a wink of sleep in days… why was it so easy to just fall asleep on the ground in Reimu's house, and so difficult to do so in her own bed? Looking at Reimu, it was easy to tell that she was worried… did the witch really seem that helpless? Deciding not to dwell on it too much, Marisa's face lit up as she saw the simple meal laid before her… eagerly taking the cup of hot tea, she breathed in the aroma and smiled contentedly. "It smells great, ze."

"As it should," The shrine maiden nodded, unable to help but smile herself as she took a seat across Marisa on the kotatsu, enjoying the warmth that emanated from underneath the table immensely. Curiously, she found herself watching intently as the blonde girl took the chopsticks, used it to get a little bit of nattō and some rice from the bowl before finally eating. "How is it?"

"Not bad," The witch replied, swallowing the food. Just like she had remembered, the nattō smelled a bit like cheese and had an annoyingly overbearing flavor to it… but for some reason, she found herself enjoying it tonight. Maybe it was the cold, or more likely, the fact that she was starving, but it was good. In fact before the witch knew it she had bit into her chopsticks again, chewing and swallowing another mouthful—blissfully unaware of the smile the miko was giving her. "The rice is pretty sticky too… I like it, ze."

"Oh? I guess I'll keep that in mind next time," Reimu said thoughtfully, placing an elbow on the kotatsu and resting her cheek on her palm, content in just watching Marisa eat. The fact that she was clearly enjoying such a simple meal made the shrine maiden want to do something a bit… more for her. Truth be told this really wasn't like her at all, but then, she rarely saw the witch this exhausted either, so… "Hold on, I think I have something else that'll go with that."

"Mhm…?" Marisa mumbled through a mouth full of nattō and rice, looking strangely at the miko as she stood up and went back to the kitchen. She didn't really have to… she'd already done more than enough really. Suddenly, the blonde girl found herself eating a little slower, a blush of embarrassment creeping up her cheeks. She wasn't really the type to worry about these kinds of things, but deep inside she hoped she wasn't giving Reimu too much trouble. Her worries were eliminated in an instant however, replaced by a watering mouth when she saw what exactly the girl had brought back for her. "Oho! Hanami dango!"

"Bocchan dango—flower viewing's long finished after all," Reimu smirked, placing the plate of colored treats skewered on sticks onto the kotatsu before sitting back down. She knew all too well how wonderfully addicting this type of wagashi was when eaten with bitter tea—exactly the reason why she had intended to keep it all to herself… but this was just fine as well. Taking the teapot, she was just about to pour some on her cup when she heard a slight pattering noise and curiously looked up to find Marisa no longer there. Her peripheral vision quickly caught the witch crawling over to her right, though before the miko could say anything, she was already in front of her. "Huh? What are you—"

The witch interrupted her by wrapping her arms around the shrine maiden's neck in an affectionate hug.

"What…"

"I… I know I don't usually say this, but…" Marisa whispered, squeezing her just a little bit tighter. "…I really appreciate what you do for me. I always have, ze…"

_Usually? More like never,_ Was what the shrine maiden wanted to say in a dry, sarcastic tone, but she couldn't seem to find her voice. Her eyes wide as saucers and a deep blush forming on her face, she did the only thing her mind would allow… she lifted her arms, and hugged back. Truth be told she could resolve catastrophic incidents and stop looming terrors from plaguing Gensokyo without feeling the least bit afraid but… this was different. This… this was a feeling completely new, utterly terrifying… yet strangely euphoric, all in one confusing package. Needless to say, several seconds would pass in silence before she found the strength to speak again. _Ah… sick people do such weird things…_ "W-well… you can appreciate me more productively by leaving donations y'know."

"Donations, huh?" Gently breaking off the hug, Marisa stared thoughtfully into Reimu's eyes, the blush still warm on their cheeks… but with a snicker that cut through the tension like a hot knife on butter, the situation quickly returned to normal, with the witch crawling back to her spot on the kotatsu to finish her meal. "Hah, that's why humans don't visit the shrine anymore… you're always going, 'Osaisen! Osaisen,' ze!"

"I'd like to think it's the fact that just about every human who tries to make the trip here from the village gets eaten by youkai," Reimu smirked, total relief flooding her senses. Had the situation escalated any further, things would've probably gotten really, really weird. Of course, that was as far as she would allow her thoughts to go on the subject… but despite the overall awkwardness concerning what happened, the shrine maiden was genuinely happy to be appreciated. In fact, she hadn't felt this happy in a long time. "And I don't sound like that! Baka."

Marisa replied with a toothy grin and went back to hungrily eating her food, her spirits back up and running. The hug certainly went far better than she had expected it to… it was so refreshing to see Reimu smile like that. Perhaps certain well-timed hugs in the near future could prove quite useful—if only to see her smile the way she did now. A full minute passed in thoughtful silence, and the witch was focused on eating the last couple grains of rice on her bowl when the booming sound of thunder erupted from outside and made her jump. "O-oh crap… if I don't get back soon it'll probably start raining hard, ze. Not to mention the soups waiting at home…"

"Sounds like it's time for you to head back then," The miko nodded, trying to hide her disappointment whilst at the same time wondering why she was even disappointed in the first place. Ah, that girl was really rubbing off on her if she was enjoying her company _this _much. "Remember the last time you went out in a storm?"

"Well… nobody really forgets being hit by lightning, ze."

"I suppose not," Reimu giggled as Marisa gulped down her cup of tea and put on her hat, quickly getting up with her basket of mushrooms in hand. Taking a stick of dango, the shrine maiden stood up and went around the kotatsu, offering the treat to the witch. "Hey… one for the road at least?"

Caught off guard by the sudden act of kindness, Marisa made a pretty good impression of a goldfish as she found herself staring at the dango. Eventually the long pause got to the miko, and she placed her free hand on her hip, pouting.

"Do you want it or not? What's wrong?"

"Ah, nothing… you really want me to start giving those donations don't you?"

"I see, so you don't want it then."

"H-hey, I didn't say that, ze…"

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**Stage 1 – Closure… (Spell Card Obtained!)**

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_Season 121, 11__th__ of the Long Month_

_Weekly experiment no. 1: Mint-scented mushroom-based tea to enjoy with Reimu_

_Minimum requirement for success: Drinkable mushroom-based tea to enjoy with Reimu_

_Went to Reimu's to get something to eat today… she was trying extra hard to be nice, which got me thinking that I should really pay her back for my extra special treatment. The soups boiled and blended today should have far more than what I need to brew some decent tea… well, it isn't really tea since I'm not using leaves but whatever, magic doesn't need to explain itself. I've also blended the same bowl of soup I used to get the minty scent for last week's experiment, so that should increase my chances of success. I won't stop until I get a good result… I want my visits to the shrine to be more like my visit today._

Closing the book and placing it on the table, Marisa yawned and stretched on her chair, steeling her resolve. It was going to be a long night—that much was certain—but the girl had a feeling she'd be sleeping like a baby after this, annoying wind or no.

"Okay then," The witch nodded; gently touching the tip of one of the mixes with her finger… the viscosity was just perfect. Instinctively cracking her knuckles, she stood and picked up her wooden wand which had been resting on her desk, tapping it gently to life. "Here goes, ze!"

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M/N: Hola! Nice to meet everybody, ze. I'm just an ordinary witch, writing to everybody from the far away land of Gensokyo (I'm prolly gonna put this on my profile too).

Now that we've got that outta the way, onto my notes concerning the story, ze.

The point of this story is… well, there isn't a point really, is there? I just felt like I should write something and have fun doing it, and I did, ze. Eheheh, it's kinda odd, but my head was completely blank when I started this, with stuff just coming to mind as I wrote… but that's probably more realistic isn't it? …What? It's careless? Well, I suppose. But life's pretty careless too, yeah?

Certain terms used that may need a bit more explainin':

Long Month/Long-lasting Month – September, ze.

Konnichiwa – G'day / Good afternoon!

Konbanwa – Good evening, ze.

Bocchan dango / Hanami dango (Wagashi) – Traditional Japanese dumpling that has its roots with the tea ceremonies in Kyoto. Both types of dango are colored, but the latter is only made during the sakura-viewing season (hence the name, hanami). The sweets were made primarily to offset the bitterness of powdered green tea (matcha), which is why it's the perfect treat to hog to oneself if you have a tea pouch lying around, ze. Still confused? Well… Anko from Naruto eats the stuff a lot, and she shares the name with that type of treat (which means red bean paste)… it's called anko dango—an-dango, for short ze.

Nattō – Traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans… strong smell, strong flavor, and real sticky—it's healthy, but probably an acquired taste for most (myself included).

Shōji – Slidin' door, ze. Not to be confused with fusuma which pretty much means the same thing, but uhm… yeah.

In any case if you didn't understand the title, then to put it simply, this story will act as a diary of sorts for everyone's favorite ordinary witch in a time of relative peace, ze. Anyway, more to come soon! Reviews are welcome of course, and suggestions are great too (in fact, it's probably what'll get me started on the next stage). Hated it, ze? You can vent out your anger, I promise you won't find hallucinogenic mushrooms in your beef stew *crosses fingers*.

Update (11/09/09): Started work on chapter two, ze. I was waiting for a review that gave a little suggestion on what to do next... but since that's likely not to happen anytime soon I figured now's as good a time as any to get started ze! I'd also like to thank everyone who read this chapter to the end, since well... I hate to admit this, but it's not likely that many did.

So, until next time then! And remember: it's not magic if it's not flashy, ze!


	2. The strongest

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"Okay, there shouldn't be anyone around this deep in the forest ze…"

Nodding to herself in satisfaction, Marisa looked up to the towering trees, its dense foliage all but blocking the sun completely. Aside from the relative darkness it was also wet and incredibly humid, most likely an effect brought on by the lack of sunlight. That wasn't the reason why this area was uninhabited though, since the forest of magic had plenty of areas devoid of the sun's rays… nope, not even close. Quickly taking her apron, Marisa covered her nose and mouth with the white cloth, her vision already blurred by forming tears. "Whew…! That stench is really somethin'…"

All around the witch and perhaps stretching even deeper into the forest were scores upon scores of monstrous over-sized mushrooms, each one emitting a spoiled noxious gas that would be sure to keep anyone (or anything) away. Even the witch herself—who was often surrounded with the magical mushrooms day and night—found the area to be particularly nasty… and it was likely that any normal human would collapse into a coma the second they caught whiff of this dangerously putrid air. _Okay! Now I can practice all my spells without worry._

Since her magic was geared more towards flashiness and destruction than anything else, she often had trouble looking for areas to be able to go all out without carelessly destroying _something_. A while back the witch had simply used her backyard to practice her spell-cards and hone her magic, but when she finally decided to research and practice magic that would enable her to scatter the energy of the master spark, well… that was when the trouble began. The first time, her concentrated beam took quite a bit off the top of Alice's house. She was definitely angry, but after Marisa had (after nearly an hour of consideration) given her some strange cloth she had collected from one of youkai mountain's numerous trails during the erratic weather incident, the magician had happily left her alone to use the aforementioned material in one of her dolls. The next and last incident was when she blew part of her house away after a disastrous misfire… it took her more than a month to repair the damage… _No way that's gonna happen again!_

Thrusting her free hand into one of the numerous pockets hidden all over her skirt, she felt the cold air blow from her mini-hakkero and smiled. Thanks to Kourin repairing it with the strange metal hihi'irokane some time ago, her little metallic reactor no longer became worn after extended periods of abuse. It was also probably her imagination, but ever since then the air had always been far cleaner than she remembered it being… of course, even if her mini-hakkero was capable of such a thing, there was no way it could clean _this _air. Removing the said item from her pocket, the witch inspected it thoroughly and as always, found nothing wrong. "Time for practice, ze!"

Placing her broom between her legs and slowly lifting a few feet off the ground, she let herself hover in that position for a while as she again dug into one of her pockets, this time removing two pieces of paper, each with their own written descriptions and Reimu's seal of approval. She had always wanted to merge two of her spell-cards together into a single dramatic display of beauty and strength, but there was the trouble of producing such power… not to mention the fact that the shrine maiden would have to approve it before the card could be activated. After hitting too many dead ends on the subject Marisa had decided to just merge the cards by using them one after the other instead of at the same time. However, the usefulness of such a move was still in question… which was exactly why she went so deep into the forest to try particular combinations, one of which started with:

"Like a comet, 'Blazing Star'!" The witch said confidently as she was enveloped by a strange blue light which; signifying a successful change in form, brought her into a high-powered state known as the spell-card trance. During the so-called trance, the witch's normal abilities and magic were augmented exponentially, a buffing spell placed by the shrine maiden on the cards as part of the dueling rules she had implemented during the scarlet mist incident. However, the user could only cast the spell written on the card for the duration of the trance, limiting its usefulness yet turning an otherwise murderous battle into an exciting game where the most powerful moves were always saved for last rather than being used for a quick kill. A spell card—at least in the witch's opinion—was the ultimate expression of oneself, and the approval of such rules to create the perfect danmaku session was probably the greatest thing that ever happened in Gensokyo.

Clutching her broom with all of her might, a little grin crept up Marisa's face as she tenderly recited the spell to life, feeling the power of her mini-hakkero burning with a beautiful and pleasant glow. Focusing her little reactor's power on the straw end of her broomstick and—pulling on the broom's handle to position it towards the sky—she excitedly spoke the final words which unleashed her spell's destructive energy. In an instant the witch and her broom were propelled upwards at an insane speed, having used her infamous master spark from behind as a means of acceleration. But even though the level of energy wasn't as much as she normally used with her trademark spell, the surrounding flora was still battered terribly, scarring the ground and ripping apart nearby plants and trees as she shot a hole through the foliage and straight to the sky in three seconds flat. As always, it was outrageously flashy… just the way she liked it. _No time to enjoy the view…!_

"Star sign: 'Dragon Meteor'!" Marisa announced, having already canceled her first spell-card trance. Normally, she would use blazing star as a means of ramming into an opponent, but this time she used it to aid this particular spell-card… if this worked well enough, she'd have Reimu create an entirely different card which used the two in succession so she'd have another spell up her sleeve if ever things got tough. By itself, dragon meteor was simply using her master spark on the opponent from a higher position in the sky, but really, it took too long to get high enough in the first place so it was pretty easy to evade. The witch enjoyed using it though, so she figured she would simply improve upon it by shortening the time it took to fly—it just so happened that blazing star was the flashiest spell poised to do so. _This is it!_

Pulling hard on her broomstick in an effort to resist the extreme force which had brought her there in the first place, the witch attempted to point her mini-hakkero downwards, aiming to shoot at the same spot she had been standing on seconds before. However, with her little reactor still recovering from her first spell-card, she was unable to control the continuous flow of energy which was needed to fuel the master spark and before she knew it, her mini-hakkero unleashed a wide, dense cylindrical beam of destructive energy which almost knocked her off of her broom as she desperately clutched the object with both her hands. "Whoa!"

Seconds later, the witch finally managed to put a stop to the overflowing energy, effectively ending the spell and canceling the trance. Letting out a sigh of extreme relief, Marisa cautiously eyed the battered little spot of forest her wayward master spark had hit… the only thing she could be certain of at that point was that it was way off target. It looked to be an area which was uninhabited as well but, perhaps she should go check anyway… if she had accidentally hit one or more trees which the fairies lived in then she could definitely expect dozens of precious items in her collection to be whisked off into the night if she didn't at least apologize. "Just my luck, ze…"

Shaking her head slowly, the witch pocketed her mini-hakkero and flew over to the aforementioned area of the forest; landing softly on the crater which formed from the initial impact of her magic spark alone. Jumping off of her broom, Marisa surveyed the damage, not surprised to see half-vaporized tree trunks and holes where mushrooms used to be. The place seemed desolate, but when it came to fairies, she couldn't trust the naked eye alone. They had a way of perfectly hiding their homes from both youkai and human eyes, though it was probably far easier to hide from the latter. "Oooi! Are there any fairies living around here? Sorry if I destroyed your homes, please don't steal any of my stuff ze!"

Relaxed but ready, Marisa waited for any kind of response, expecting a group of fairies to appear and yell at her or maybe even gang up on her… but after several seconds passed without a reply, it became apparent to the witch that there was no-one around to get hurt. Still, she had a strange feeling in her gut that something was wrong. Chalking it up to her imagination, she let out a little shrug and was about to get back onto her broom when a loud croaking noise echoed north of where she was. Naturally, the witch stopped in her tracks and stared into that general direction, more curious than afraid. "What was that?"

Wasting no more time, Marisa headed to where she thought she had heard the strange noise, the desire to investigate too powerful to ignore. She didn't even have to walk very far to find the source of the loud croak; she simply didn't spot it at first since her view was blocked by some of the collapsed trees. Truth be told the witch didn't really care to guess what could possibly make a noise like that, but when she laid her eyes on it, she supposed it was about right… a giant toad, about the size of two or three humans. It was on its back, and for a second Marisa had assumed the worst… but upon closer inspection she found that it was only unconscious. _Probably got blown away instead of being hit directly…_

"Sorry 'bout that, ze," The blonde girl apologized, patting the giant toad's side when she felt a sudden chill in the air. It didn't really bother her at first, but when the air became cold enough to the point where her breath was producing mist, the witch found herself looking around once more, quickly spotting something blue under a bush only a couple yards away from the toad. Now more curious than ever, she quickly treaded over to the strange object, gawking in surprise as she realized what exactly_ it_ was. "What the… Cirno???"

Sure enough, it truly was the icicle-winged fairy… though she was lying motionless on the ground, covered head to toe with a thick, gooey slime of sorts. Did that frog spit her out…? Whatever the case, she looked hurt. Sighing in annoyance, the witch knew that she couldn't just leave her there, much as she wanted to. Taking a little vial containing a bluish liquid from one of her skirt pockets, she popped open the little cork and downed the potion in one gulp—feeling a little tingly inside as the effects kicked in. It was a potent mix that kept her warm for hours; pretty much stopping her from freezing her butt off when collecting mushrooms during winter. Of course it hasn't come just yet… but it was always better to be safe than sorry. Considering she was about to help a fairy who could freeze small objects instantly with a single touch, she figured she had at least forty minutes to do what she had to do before getting frostbite. "Oh well, at least you don't look heavy…"

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**Unconventional Peace in Everyday Gensokyo (Ordinary Witch Saga), Stage 2: "The strongest!"**

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"STOMACH ACIDS AAAH!" The ice fairy yelled out, her body jerking forward instinctively. After a second or two of disoriented fear and utter confusion, it finally registered into her head that she was safe, and the fairy's eyes darted left and right as she took in her surroundings. Eventually calming down, only more questions seemed to come flooding in as she came to the conclusion that she really had no idea where she was. A pretty comfortable bed, in a messy room with tons of little things from books to clothes to mushrooms… how did she even end up here in the first place? "…Where am I?"

Seemingly overwhelmed by her own questions, Cirno failed to notice a head slowly peek into view from outside the door. "Finally awake I see—

—Kiii!" The fairy jumped, causing some of the surrounding objects to collect ice instantly.

"Calm down, ze! Geez… it's just me," Marisa reassured, walking inside the room and crossing her arms in disapproval. If she wasn't careful then Cirno would likely turn her whole house into an igloo and the fairy wouldn't even know it. The witch was relieved to see her awake though, she'd been sleeping for a few hours at least. Her bed wasn't a block of ice yet either, which was definitely a good thing. But then again even if it was, her mini-hakkero was perfectly capable of fixing such a problem in an instant. "Anyway, feelin' better? You were pretty banged up when I saw you."

"…Marisa? Huh? I was?" The fairy asked, her memory still piecing itself together as she looked at her arms and legs, which were covered in bandages. She did feel really sore… but still, why did the blonde witch bother to do this in the first place? Aside from interaction with some of the fairies, both human and youkai alike just seemed to dismiss her as a childish idiot. And it wasn't like they could touch her anyway; she couldn't help the fact that she froze anything she touched. "You put these things on me…?"

"It wasn't easy," The witch grinned and showed her hands, which were bandaged up as well. Tending to the fairy's wounds had taken longer than she expected… she actually had to down two more potions to stop her hands from turning into an ice sculpture. Everything worked out okay in the end though, and she didn't get frostbite, which was always good. "Who knew fixing an ice fairy'd be so tricky, ze."

Cirno's eyes widened when she realized what exactly the witch had done for her. As far as she could remember, no-one had ever gone out of their way to do something like this… of course she was never any good at recalling such things—even so, it was a fact she knew all too well. But then, she had never really let it get to her. It didn't bother her that she had relatively few friends outside the circle of fairies she hung out with, though they poked fun at her sometimes. But here was a human who threatened what she'd come to accept, who threatened to break down what she'd worked so hard to build… and the fairy would have none of it. "Are… are you an idiot or something?!"

"E-eeeh?"

"What did you have to go and do that for?! Don't you know you aren't supposed to touch ice fairies?!" Cirno exclaimed angrily, rising up as her icicle-shaped wings started to glow. But before she could take off a sharp pain shot through her back and she crashed back onto the bed, her face a mix between anger and confusion as more ice began to form on the objects around her, including her dress. "You… you dummy!"

"Hey, I'm no dummy! And why the heck are you so mad?! So much for common courtesy, ze!" The witch yelled back, feeling her own anger rise up at the fairy's ungrateful words. She had expected a simple thank you at the very least, but this was totally uncalled for. Storming toward the ice fairy, Marisa accusingly thrust a bandaged finger forward; the blonde girl's face getting redder by the second. "If you'd have been more damn careful then you wouldn't be in this mess in the first… place…"

Marisa's angry words died in her throat when she realized that Cirno was staring sadly at the witch's bandaged hand, her cerulean eyes moist from forming tears.

"What did you… what did you have to get hurt for…"

Slowly lowering her arm, the witch's expression softened as the fairy choked out a tiny sob, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands as the tears rolled down her pallid cheeks. Was she… guilty that the witch got herself hurt trying to help her? Suddenly, Marisa felt totally helpless… who'd have known dealing with Cirno could be so difficult? Now she felt like it was her fault the fairy was crying… her fault for trying to help. What kind of skewered logic was that? This was why she absolutely couldn't stand seeing anybody cry. "H-hey…! Come on now, don't cry… please stop crying, ze…"

Cirno sniffled softly, trying her best to stop the tears from flowing because it made her look terribly lame. But for some reason, she just couldn't stop herself from breaking down… she just wasn't used to acts of kindness like this one. Truth be told she wasn't used to giving them out either, which only seemed to make things worse. "But… why? W-why help me?"

Resting her hands on her hips, the witch breathed out a little sigh. That was certainly a strange question… and it was just like the fairy to ask her something as weird as that. "Why do you even need a reason? I helped because I thought I should… that's it, ze."

"Really…?" Cirno muttered, having regained enough composure to calm down a little. She had been expecting a more complicated answer (perhaps one she wouldn't understand), but surprisingly enough she was able to relate to the witch's impulsive reply… probably due to the fact that most of the fairy's own decision-making was based on impulse as well. "That's how I think up of things to do too…"

"Oh? Well, what do you remember last doing anyway?"

"What I always do I guess… freezing frogs then maybe juggling'em."

"Eh… suddenly it all makes sense now," The blonde witch closed her eyes and nodded to herself, massaging the bridge of her nose with her fingers. She had her doubts in the beginning, but now she was convinced that the giant toad she'd accidentally knocked unconscious ate up the little fairy for her 'hobby'. "Listen, this may come as a shock to you, but… you were swallowed up by a huge toad, ze."

"Huh?" Cirno blinked, wiping away her tears.

"Yup, I know… it surprised me too, I didn't even think it was possible—

—It tried to eat me AGAIN?" The fairy interrupted, earning a blank stare from Marisa as both the bed and the random scattered clothing around it started to form even more ice. "But I haven't played in that overgrown dummy's swamp in ages!"

"Wait, hold up… _again_?" The witch repeated, unable to wipe the blank expression off her face. It seemed as though she needed to update the toads and frogs section of her unfinished survival guide… perhaps add Cirno to their list of natural enemies. Ah, she learned something new everyday… "So you're tellin' me that this isn't the first time you've been swallowed whole by a giant toad, ze."

"Uhuh… actually the last time it happened I was even featured in a newspaper, but it made me look really lame," The ice fairy pouted, recalling in particular the rude and nosy tengu who had interviewed her and outright refused to make the newspaper cooler. Instead she was made to look like she'd been punished for being mean to frogs, rather than portray her as the victim and/or victor of her great battle against the giant toad. "I was just freezing frogs anyway! She said I was lucky, but the other fairies laughed at me for weeks… I hope that tengu didn't see me get eaten again."

"Ah,the _crow_," Marisa's eyes narrowed as she recalled an article about her so-called perpetual _burglary_ in the scarlet mansion. What a thoughtless way to put it… it wasn't like she was going to keep the books forever. Besides, she'd borrowed quite a bit more after that article, and there hasn't been any other news about her since… then again, the tengu did only show her the article two whole years after the event, so maybe there was hope still. Of course it wasn't really the paper the witch was looking forward to; she just figured she could borrow another picture during the interview. "Yeah, that third-rate newspaper of hers is totally idiotic. But then that hobby of yours isn't exactly very smart either, ze."

"Hey, freezing frogs isn't just for fun you know! It's ice training too," Cirno replied defensively, her wings twitching as the edges of the bed began to collect ice as well. "I definitely don't do it just because they're cute. Plus when I'm not juggling them I watch the ice melt, which can get boring sometimes so there!"

"Right, right, whatever you say," The blonde witch shook her head, not wanting to upset her any further lest the fairy haphazardly froze anymore of her precious belongings. She was glad she could help, but she really wished Cirno would feel better already so she could go back to _ice training_ or whatever she called juggling frozen frogs, and the witch could get started on defrosting her room. Suddenly, Marisa remembered a particular concoction she had that just might do the trick… it was a medicinal mushroom and herb-based potion the witch normally drank herself to heal scrapes and burns faster. Simple logic really; since injuries on humans took so much longer to heal than youkai, then the effects on Cirno would most likely be instantaneous… or at least, she hoped that would be the case. "Anyway, I'll go get some medicine for you. Stay put, ze."

"Medicine?" The ice fairy repeated, not entirely familiar with the word. "What's that?"

"It's nasty tasting stuff that's supposed to be good for you."

"What? That doesn't sound like it's good for me at all!" Cirno whined. And they called _her_ dumb. That explanation just didn't make sense… how could something that tasted bad, be good? Suddenly realizing that she was actually pretty hungry, the ice fairy spotted some colorful looking mushrooms on the small desk beside the bed. "Can't I just eat those instead?"

"Nu-uh."

"Why not?"

"'Cause they're hallucinogenic mushrooms."

"Hallucino-what?"

"Never mind just… no means no, ze," Marisa replied with a note of finality, heading towards her desk and quickly stuffing the mushrooms on her skirt pocket since she didn't trust the fairy not to eat them while she was away. The only reason she actually kept the stuff in her room in the first place was so that she wouldn't make the mistake of cooking them… which happened often enough to worry about. "It's dangerous. Anyway, sit tight and be good… I'll come back with the medicine and maybe a wild orange, ze."

"Fine…" Cirno replied with a huff, quieting down mainly because an orange sounded pretty good at the moment. Watching her leave the room, the fairy figured since the witch was helping her get better and everything, she should at least 'sit tight and be good'… well, that was her original intention, until one of the colorful mushrooms slipped out of Marisa's skirt and rolled quietly on the floor as she walked out of sight. In mere seconds her eyes were focused so intently on the little temptation's lime-green cap that it was a surprise the mushroom didn't turn into a block of ice then and there. Trying her best to resist, she quickly looked away… and when that didn't work, she covered her eyes. But then, just when she thought she was going to be able to successfully ignore it, doubt crept into her mind. _What if Marisa's lying and it really isn't dangerous?_

"Probably wanted to feed me that icky medicine so she can have the mushrooms all to herself," Cirno muttered as she opened her eyes and stood up, a big frown on her face. She was onto the crafty witch's mind-games… and she wasn't going to fall for it this time. Quickly heading over to the open door, the ice fairy picked up the lone mushroom and flew back onto the bed before she could be noticed. Letting out a toothy victory grin, she eyed the lime-green mushroom before hungrily popping it into her mouth, chewing slowly and making a strange face. She didn't know what hallucino-something or other meant, but it certainly tasted pretty odd. Shrugging, the fairy swallowed with an audible gulp.

"…That tasted bad," The aqua haired girl said to herself, still hungry. Suddenly, it seemed silly that the witch would lie so she could have such weird-tasting mushrooms to herself. Also, why would she say that it was dangerous? For several seconds the fairy was lost in thought, pondering about the uninteresting mushroom when the ground suddenly shook. "Huh?"

"I'm back," Marisa said as she walked into the room, holding a small grey liquid container on one hand and an orange on the other. "Now I'll only give you the orange if you drink this fir—

—YOU!" Cirno stood on the bed in alarm, dramatically pointing a finger at her ultimate rival; none other than the giant toad itself, which looked to be wearing the witch's hat. "What've you done to Marisa?!"

"Eh? What kinda crazy game are you playing this time, ze?" The witch replied, albeit a little amused at the fairy's comical reaction, but the smug look on her face instantly vanished when she noticed how dilated the fairy's pupils were. Quickly digging into her pocket, her eyes widened when she felt four mushrooms—she could have sworn taking five from her desk. _No way… could she have…?_ "Cirno, did you eat one of the mushrooms?"

"You… you ate her, didn't you?" Cirno's eyes narrowed menacingly, her wings glowing once again as a layer of frost began to collect all around the room. This time, the giant toad made things personal… and it had better be ready to finish what it started; because the fairy truly couldn't remember the last time she was this angry. "If you don't spit my friend out right now and return the orange, I won't forgive you."

Marisa felt a chill creep up her spine at the fairy's threatening words, though truth be told she was a lot more worried about her belongings… not all of her stuff would be able to withstand being frozen in a block of ice. But then again, neither could she. It didn't seem like Cirno was going to listen, but the witch gave it a try anyway. "What you're seeing isn't real! I _am_ Marisa, so snap out of it!"

"Liar!" The fairy exclaimed in reply, the temperature dropping even lower. If the giant toad wasn't going to voluntarily spit her out, then she was going to make it spit her out. "Like you could ever hope to be that pretty!"

"…You think I'm pretty, ze?"

"I didn't say you were!" Cirno screeched, more upset than ever. Even now it still had the nerve to mock her? It seemed as though her nemesis completely underestimated her abilities… well, not for long if she had anything to do about it! With a look of resolution in her eyes, the ice fairy slowly took one of the spell-cards she kept in her dress, having finally had it with the giant toad. "You asked for it—ice sign: 'Icicle Fall'!"

"Crap," The witch muttered as she tossed the wild orange towards the fairy, the round piece of fruit bouncing cleanly off of her head before turning into a block of ice and smashing into pieces as it crashed onto the ground. Fortunately it succeeded in distracting her for a split-second—which Marisa wisely took as her cue to run.

"Ow! Why you…!" The fairy fumed, her whole body enveloped by a blue glow as she finally entered the spell-card trance—her powers amplifying almost instantly. In seconds the entire room was covered in ice as she flew after the giant toad, managing to completely ignore the shooting pain that plagued her back. "You're not getting away that easy!"

"Crap crap crap," Marisa repeated as she maneuvered through the great maze known only as her home. She just _knew_ it was a terrible idea to use the only type of mushroom she had that could counteract the effects of hallucination on one of her experiments… now the only other thing she could think of was to get out of the house and pick some more, which thankfully coincided with her earlier idea of getting the heck out of her house so the fairy didn't freeze everything. Before any of that of course, she needed her trusty broom, which was where she had always left it—leaning on the wall just beside her front door. However, seconds before she could reach it a dangerously sharp icicle whizzed past her, crashing beside her broom which caused the ice to spread and freeze it in place. "H-hey!"

"Get your slimy hands off of Marisa's stuff!" Cirno warned, hovering several feet away from the witch as more icicles formed around her, all pointed towards the giant thief.

"It's _my_ stuff, ze! And my hands aren't slimy!"

"Quit trying to confuse me!"

The blonde girl was about to yell something back when the icicles suddenly shot towards her, the witch having to jump for cover as the crystal bullets crashed into parts of her precious collection. "Nooo! Stop hitting my stuff and aim properly!"

"S-shuddup!" The fairy blushed in embarrassment, a dozen more icicles forming in response. Thrusting both her hands forward, the aforementioned chunks zoomed toward its target with pin-point accuracy.

Instantly regretting what she'd said, Marisa wordlessly burst out of her house and shut the door behind her, sighing in exasperation when the icicles ripped it off its hinges. Deciding against complaining to the fairy about how long it would take to fix the front door, she broke into a sprint and headed toward the cover of the trees instead, looking back to see Cirno floating out of the house and flying after her. This certainly wasn't a game of danmaku anymore…

"Stand still!"

"You, wish!" The witch said in-between gasps, her stubborn reply met with even more icicles heading towards her direction. Quickly running in zigzags, she considered just fighting back and using her master spark, but for some reason she found herself not wanting to hurt the fairy… because despite the fact that she was trying to stab her with pointy chunks of ice, she really was just trying to save her from… well, whatever she saw the witch as at the moment. The giant toad seemed to fit the bill, but she couldn't be sure unless she asked. Suddenly, her peripheral vision caught an icicle land a little too close for comfort, and the witch derailed her current train of thought. Focusing on not being killed for now, she dove behind a particularly thick tree, landing awkwardly on her stomach. "Ouch…"

"That's not gonna save you…" Closing her eyes in pure concentration, Cirno's aura pulsed and seethed as she tapped into as much of her power as she possibly could… and when she finally opened her eyes, more than nine dozen icicles were spread all around her. Slowly pointing at the tree the giant toad was using for cover, the deadly projectiles began to hurl itself one after the other, battering the tree's near impenetrable trunk.

"Whoa…!" Marisa crawled into a better position and covered her head with her arms as she watched the tree get massacred by Cirno's spell… truth be told at this point she was practically paralyzed, though it was more out of amazement than fear. Who would've thought the bumbling ice fairy would have this much power? Eventually, after enough icicles had crashed into the tree it began to creak and move ever so slightly, looking just about ready to topple over… but just when the witch considered heading towards another tree, she caught sight of a group of mushrooms growing several yards away. Her golden brown eyes squinting in an effort to get a better look, the witch quickly recognized one of them as the mushroom she needed. _That's it, that's the one I need! Pretty lucky… though it's out in the open. Now what?_

"You can't hide behind that forever," The fairy taunted, letting out a confident smirk as she relented from battering the tree to see if the giant toad would come out of hiding. Counting wasn't exactly her strong suit, but she figured she still had about half of her icicles left intact. After several seconds of waiting impatiently, the fairy finally decided to just rip the toad's cover to bits when she saw something dark jump out from behind the tree. Reacting far quicker than she had expected herself to, she thrust her hands forward once again and the icicles impacted with her target in record time… however, the fairy was caught completely off guard as a loud, blinding explosion of star-shaped light and flying colors forced her to cover her ears and close her eyes. "W-what the…!"

"Now!" Marisa said to herself, running as fast as her legs could possibly take her toward the mushroom patch. What a waste of perfectly good potions and fireworks… not to mention her outfit, all of which she had thrown in the opposite direction on a last ditch effort to distract the ice fairy. Oh well, at least it worked… it was just too bad she didn't have the time to appreciate the chain reaction of all of those little bottles she had stuffed in her skirt and dress pockets. Now stuck with only her bloomers, white blouse and hat to protect her decency (and of course her mini-hakkero), the witch quickly skid to a halt and picked the mushroom she needed, gasping for air as she steeled herself and broke into another lung-crunching sprint, this time heading back to the house. Thinking back to it she could have always stuffed her hat with the potions and threw that instead, but really, the moment she decided to sacrifice her hat for anything was the moment she would stop being a witch. "Almost… there…!"

"There you are!" Cirno exclaimed, pointing angrily at the retreating toad which seemed to look different… less, decent somehow. Shaking her head, the fairy expelled all such distractions from her mind. Thanks to that strange explosion, her spell-card trance had been broken, but it would have to take more than pretty fireworks to stop her. Raising another spell-card up into the air, the fairy's expression became cold and menacing as she entered another spell-card trance. "Now I'm really mad… freeze sign: 'Minus K'!"

"Crap!" The blonde girl cursed as she finally managed to get through the hole that was once her front door, fully aware of the capabilities of that particular spell-card… though she should probably update her grimoire with the fairy's icicle-based spell if ever she got out of this predicament alive. During minus K, Cirno would create small clumps of ice that—after prolonged exposure to the air—would explode and leave very little room to dodge. In a game of danmaku it was a pleasure to see, but if those little clumps entered her home (with her inside), then she would be in a world of trouble. Genuinely fearing for her life, Marisa fought off the fire in her lungs as she used her mini-hakkero to melt the ice that kept her broom in place. _Hurry up and melt already!_

"I'm going to end this right now!" Her little bombs completely formed and ready to strike, Cirno maneuvered the unstable clumps of ice as they slowly headed toward the house, having made up her mind. "Sorry about this Marisa…"

"Wait just one second!" The witch yelled as she walked out of the house and positioned her broom between her legs. Realizing that the broomstick was still biting cold, she tried her best not to make a strange face as she took out a piece of paper from under her hat. "Can I ask a question, ze!"

"Ugh… fine!" The fairy pouted, stopping her spell in its tracks. It had better be good; she was just about to win too. "What?"

"Like a comet, 'Blazing Star'!"

"What kinda question is that?!" The fairy asked, baffled as she lowered her guard for just a moment.

Fortunately, that was all the time Marisa needed to activate her spell-card. Before Cirno could even think about reacting the witch was already a blur in a flashy explosion of unbelievable speed—her arm outstretched and ready to shove the mushroom through the ice fairy's gawking mouth.

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**Stage 2 – Closure… (Spell Card Obtained!)**

**-----  
**

"Ungh…"

"Hey… you awake, ze?"

"W-what…" Letting out a pained moan, Cirno slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the setting sun, which was blindingly bright. After a few seconds however, her eyes finally adjusted to the light and she noticed a blurred figure with a large hat… causing the ice fairy to sit up in alarm as her memories came pouring in. She was afraid that it was that giant toad again… but to her great relief, it was only the witch who was staring back, a strangely defensive look on her face. "Marisa! Are you okay???"

"Ah…" The girl in question sighed, also looking incredibly relieved herself as she quickly hid the same mushroom she had planned to feed the fairy earlier in her blouse's chest pocket. Things didn't exactly go according to plan, but… she supposed accidentally rendering one unconscious by ramming a mushroom into their forehead at break neck speed was a good way to counteract hallucinations as well. In any case, it all worked out, aside from the fact that her hand was a little sore from the impact… plus, she really needed to work on her aim. "Yup, I'm fine."

"A-and the toad? Where'd that giant toad go? Did I beat it up? Did it run away?"

"Actually…" Marisa considered just telling the fairy the truth, about her eating the hallucinogenic mushroom and thinking the witch was a giant toad with slimy hands… but remembering how hard the fairy had fought to _save_ her, she couldn't help but feel flattered. For such a mischievous little idiot, Cirno was still a valuable friend. "You sure did, ze… it spit me out and ran away like a scared little tadpole."

"I-I did?! Yay! I showed that dummy who's boss!" The fairy said gleefully, laughing as she stood and began to jump up and down, her icicle-shaped wings glowing and twitching in response. "I'm the strongest after all!"

"The strongest, huh… I wonder about that," The blonde girl whispered, more to herself than anything. After witnessing what Cirno was capable of today, she couldn't help but wonder about just how strong she really was… perhaps maybe someday, when the fairy finally tapped into her true potential, the witch would challenge her to a danmaku session. That was definitely something to look forward to. "That doesn't mean you've escaped taking your medicine though! Well… if I can find it anyway, ze."

"Aw! Why do I have to take that stuff anyway?"

"Because it's supposed to heal you up, and I wanna see if there are any side-effects!"

"But I'm all better, y'see? My wounds are almost all gone."

"That may be true, but there are still the side-effects to look forward to, ze… call it revenge for freezing half of my house."

"But… it wasn't all my fault! The giant toad… wait, why aren't you wearing anything over your undies?"

"…The toad ate my clothes, ze."

"That fiend!"

"Tell me about it… anyway, after I find your medicine and some clothes I'm gonna go look for Nitori, ze. Since you broke the front door, you have to guard my house and make sure none of your fairy friends steal anything until I get back, all right?"

"But… I'm the strongest!"

"And what does that have to do with anything, ze?"

"Just sayin'…"

-----

-----

M/N: *stretches* Phew… finally finished! I know I wrote that I started working on the ninth (which actually inspired me to use Cirno as stage 2's guest), but I barely got to work on it because of classes… today though, I spent nearly eight hours typing the story up, and I'm tired ze.

Cirno's quite simple and emotional isn't she? But deep inside she really means well! I just wish the house didn't have to suffer so much…

As always, here are term/s used in the story you may not be familiar with, ze:

Hihi'irokane – Translating to 'crimson ore', it's a metal depicted in old Japanese legends that supposedly possessed extraordinary qualities. Anyway, Kourin uses this particular metal to repair and upgrade the mini-hakkero in chapter six of 'Curiosities of Lotus Asia', ze. It even had this 'minus ion' thing that cleaned the air somehow, but I think I'll leave it at that, I'm gettin' carried away since I'm about to fall dead asleep…

Of course, the tengu/crow being referred to in this stage is none other than Aya Shameimaru, whose rather bias articles can be seen in 'Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red'… give it a read and subscribe to improve the third-rate newspaper's circulation ze!

Anyway, that's about it… as always, reviews (bad or good) are always welcome, and remember: it's not magic if it's not flashy, ze!


	3. Part of the family

"_No! Susan, I can't just leave you here!" Rudolph pleaded, his hands shaking as he pressed the young woman's now cold body against his. This couldn't be happening… there was still so much he had to tell her, and so much he still needed to learn. He needed her. "You're hurt, and you can't do this alone…"_

"_I would just slow you down, and then they'll take us both," Susan replied sadly, trying to fight the tears of pain that stung and blurred her sight, steeling her heart for what was to come. Her mind raced to think of any other alternative—anything at all, but she knew all too well that there really was no other way… no other but the path she had long feared to tread. "I'm so sorry…just please, forget about me and run…!"_

"…_You ask too much of me. How could you say that?" Rudolph's face softened, but the stubborn glint in his eyes had returned with a vengeance. There was no way he could let this happen… he wouldn't let it happen. Gently cupping her pale cheek with his palm, he stared at her raven eyes gently, as though looking for something he couldn't quite understand. "I won't let it end like this."_

"_Y-you don't mean…"_

"_I do," The brown-haired man nodded, his mouth forming one final smile. He could hear them coming now, it was inevitable. He could still run, but he wouldn't ever leave her. This was how it was going to be from the start, he knew that now. He may have had virtually no chance in this situation, but he still had his ace in the hole. If he didn't succeed, then at the very least… he would make it difficult for them. "I will not let them hurt you."_

"_Oh, Rudolph…" The girl whispered, as though his name was the most precious thing to her. She didn't want it to have to come to this, but the fact that he was willing to sacrifice it all for her, made her both very sad… and very happy. "Just this once… kiss me."_

_Without saying another word, the young man dipped his head down and let their lips brush together gently, before pressing-_

"Ng," Rubbing her eyes, the little blonde witch tried her best not to break into a full-blown sob as she shook her head in an effort to regain her composure. She didn't know whether she regretted mistakenly taking this as one of Patchouli's spell-books or not. Since the first page the girl was caught in an epic tale of fantasy, a symbolic story of love and loss, and for the past couple hours since waking up this morning she hadn't done anything else but read this old book. "Their first kiss ze…"

Anxiously turning to the next page; her cheeks already pink at the thought of a steamy kissing scene whilst fighting the urge to stop reading in fear of the outcome of their deadly encounter—Marisa's eyes widened.

*_Accidentally spilled milk tea on the last dozen or so leaves, this chapter concludes at the beginning of volume 2, kept in bookcase 336, row 40. – Patch_

Staring blankly at the book, Marisa flipped the last couple of pages only to find them empty and discolored. Flipping and scanning through them again, and then once more, and one more time after that, the blonde girl calmly closed the book, lying herself down and rolling to her belly on the bed, and quietly digging her face into her pillow before letting out a scream of utter frustration, all the while flailing her legs around in a tantrum. "NNNOOO…!"

Several seconds passed in silence after the muffled outburst, with the witch's face still on her pillow, lying perfectly still on her bed before instantly pushing herself up to her knees—the girl's face a mix of annoyance and stubborn resolve. She hadn't really planned on going to the Scarlet Mansion today, as she'd _borrowed_ enough books to last a week at the very least, but she needed to know what happened to Rudolph and Susan. Otherwise she'd probably just brood over it and get nothing done and; if there was one thing she hated, it was spending the day not doing what she wanted to do. _It should still be pretty early…_

Turning her head slightly, she gazed at the old grandfather clock which had been given to her by Rinnosuke when she'd first started living alone. Technically, it belonged to her anyway, but she found even the very thought of where she had used to live—or the person she used to live with—abhorrent and downright repulsive. Keeping her mind off of that subject for the moment (hopefully for good), the witch nodded to herself. It was still an hour 'til noon, more than enough time to give Patchouli a surprise visit and borrow that book… although, it was also a pretty attractive idea to simply sneak in. It wasn't like they were expecting another visit from her anyway, at least not so soon after her most recent 'break-in', though they were always ready for her one way or the other.

"Guess lunch'll have to wait ze," Marisa muttered to herself, lifting her arms up and letting out a good stretch. Her mood back to its normally cheery disposition, she lifted the top of her nightgown slightly and gave herself a sniff. Nothing terrible… she considered putting the bath off until later tonight when a mental image of that tengu's third-rate newspaper suddenly flashed in her mind:

_Midsummer's Continual Sneak Thief Strikes Again at Midwinter! Partner in Crime: Bad Hygiene!_

Letting out a shudder, the witch practically jumped out of bed, her blanket tumbling softly to the ground as she readied to give herself a long and unnecessarily thorough bath. Sure she could get a little sweaty sometimes; mainly because of her tendency to push herself a little more than most of Gensokyo's other inhabitants… she wasn't youkai after all. And it wasn't like anyone's ever complained about the way she smelled… have they? Either way she supposed it didn't really matter… Marisa Kirisame would surely be known for many things, but troublesome bath skipper would not ever be one of them.

_The only real obstacle would be Chuugoku, _A little smile played on her lips as she quickly undressed and played with the different scenarios of sneaking into the Scarlet Mansion in her head. It didn't really matter from where she tried to enter the place from—for some reason their lazy gatekeeper could always sense where she was… of course, the master spark had dealt with her on more occasions than she would bother to count, but she was aiming for stealth and that would ruin the fun. There wasn't any use trying to be stealthy around that youkai though, so she needed to think of something a little more elaborate than simply trying to avoid her.

Quickly taking and wrapping a dry towel around her body before stepping into the bathroom, Marisa's smile grew wider, and perhaps a little more mischievous. Yes, this could work… with just a slight detour, and a little luck, she should be able to get something to eat as well as sneak into the mansion without a hitch. Then again, almost half the time Chuugoku was either asleep or just not there, which definitely made it easier, but a lot less interesting. Dipping a finger into the tub to make sure the water was just the right temperature, the witch nodded in approval. She could only hope that the youkai was even around (or awake) to get rid of…

**Unconventional Peace in Everyday Gensokyo (Ordinary Witch Saga), Stage 3: "Part of the family."**

"Mm…" Letting out a breath of happy satisfaction, the witch took another bite out of her yakitori, gently sliding the barbecued chicken meat off of the bamboo skewer with her teeth. There was only one genuine yakitori stand outside of the human village, located far off in the vast bamboo forest—and since she wouldn't be caught dead in the village, the latter was the obvious choice. Thanks to her broom, it was a quick in and out, which was just as well… the owner of that stand made her skin crawl. She didn't particularly dislike the anti-social girl however; Mokou's presence just made the witch nervous, which was more than enough of a reason for her to avoid anyone really. _I'll admit though, her tare sauce is really somethin' else…_

Keeping the last skewer in its makeshift leaf packaging and holding on tighter to her broom, Marisa braced herself; instinctively squinting to fight off the wind pressure as she willfully plunged down to the earth from high above after having finally reached her destination, the Scarlet Mansion. Aside from danmaku, this was one of the few moments where she felt truly alive, sporting a grin that threatened to rip her face in two as she willed her broom to fall faster and faster, knowing that the breath she was holding would be her last if she reacted even just a second too late. _Not yet…!_

Now holding onto the yakitori, her broom as well as her hat, the whole world seemed to narrow down in her eyes as the wind that smashed on her face made it so that she could just barely make out what was in front of her. The witch's adrenaline shooting up, Marisa carelessly shut her eyes closed for one electric yet terrifying moment… before suddenly pulling up on her broom, the great booming effect of gravity attacking her senses and crushing her without mercy—but despite that, the witch's body was much too used to it to even feel most of the pain, which instead was replaced by a powerful rush that couldn't be imitated any other way. Eventually slowing down to a stop and opening her eyes, Marisa snickered and gauged her distance to the ground… she was getting closer every time, but there was still enough room to get even closer. "Hm… not bad, ze."

Adjusting her hat and combing a hand through her thick blonde hair to make sure leaves (among other things) haven't made her head their new home, the witch let out a little stretch and focused her attention on the matter at hand. The mansion itself was in plain sight and—to Marisa's delight—Chuugoku as well. Deciding to walk the rest of the way, she eagerly hopped off of her broom, letting her trusty cleaning tool rest on her shoulder as she walked casually towards her destination. In practically no time she had reached the gates, with Chuugoku tending to some of the stray flowers growing just under the unnecessarily tall structure. As she went closer however, the gatekeeper stood, shuddering with her back still to the witch.

Putting her hands on her hips and letting out a sigh, the red-haired youkai turned to face Marisa, her striking blue eyes reflecting her quiet unease. "No wonder the air got prickly all of a sudden… listen, if you want a fight—

"Nah, I'm not up to it today ze… it's too cold anyway," The witch answered, having to tilt her head up slightly to look at the youkai's face as she was quite tall. She wasn't very good when it came to telling lies, but then again it wasn't like she was lying. It was just far more urgent to quickly borrow the book and find out what had happened to Rudolph and Susan was all. "Is it so strange that I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd say hi?"

"Actually, that's probably the strangest thing I've heard in a while… and even if I did believe you, I still can't let you in Marisa."

"Yeah yeah," The girl pouted, trying to control her temper so she could properly execute her plan. "…ne, Chuugoku. Isn't it close to lunch-time? Have you eaten ze?"

The red-head twitched. There was that name again: Chuugoku. How difficult was it to remember Hong Meiling? Or even just Hong? She didn't know how many times she had told Marisa her real name, but the little human never stopped calling her Chuugoku—in fact, a handful of the other youkai have started to call her that as well… a trend most likely having stemmed from the stubbornness of the little witch in front of her. But despite all of that, she did raise a good point… "My… morning shift's been extended an hour by Sakuya for my 'unsatisfactory' behavior, so not yet…"

"Ah… that's too bad, ze," The blonde girl nodded, unraveling her leaf package. She quickly resisted the urge to comment on how Chuugoku shouldn't be sleeping on the job so much, but that probably wasn't too smart a move… she wasn't here to fight after all. The delicious scent of barbequed meat filling her nostrils once more, she took her last stick of yakitori, still hot from its package and offered it to Hong, who suddenly lit up like fireworks. "Here ya go—bought too much and I couldn't finish it, so…"

"Eh? R-really?" The youkai gawked, unable to hide her complete and utter surprise. Rarely, if ever was she shown any kind of generosity by outsiders. Even among the residents of the mansion only Patchouli remained constantly amiable, as the others had the tendency to blow their tops every now and then… but the sickly bookworm rarely stepped out of her library so it wasn't like their paths even crossed enough for them to be considered real friends. "You sure you don't want it anymore?"

"I dunno… maybe just one more," With a teasing little grin, Marisa bit and took the topmost piece from her yakitori stick, reveling at the soft juicy chicken meat as Chuugoku looked on hungrily. That left three more pieces to enjoy… obviously, not enough to satisfy the red-haired youkai. But, it was never the witch's plan to satisfy her in the first place. With her trademark smirk, she offered the skewer again, satisfied with how her plan was going. "I'm not hungry, but I'm willing to eat it if you aren't ze—

"T-thanks then," Hong said gratefully, taking the yakitori stick without another moment's hesitation. It wasn't wise to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if it came from someone who stirred up trouble on a daily basis. Having to wait another hour before she could eat was torture… it was actually a good thing Marisa had passed by, crazy a thought as that seemed. Eagerly biting a warm piece off of the bamboo skewer, her eyes slowly glazed over, and her cheeks took on a pinkish color. This… this was good! Being one whose taste-buds were sensitive enough to truly appreciate food, this was truly incredible yakitori. Wasting no time in wolfing down the two last pieces, Hong suppressed the urge to let out a tiny moan… the chicken was grilled expertly and was soft and enjoyable, but it was the sauce that truly made it delicious… she could particularly taste the high quality sake in the mixture. There was one big problem though… three measly pieces weren't enough. "Where… where in the village did you get this…?"

"Ah, I didn't get it in the village," The witch replied, not too surprised that Chuugoku wasn't aware of Mokou's business. The Kirisame magic shop rarely if ever had any customers… it was also difficult to manage and maintain when she was just too busy with other things. Not to mention having to advertise—and even if she made a serious effort to, no-one would bother to go that deep into the forest of magic for potions, the same way no-one would dare to enter the bamboo forest of the lost just for some yakitori. But despite all that, Marisa opened the magic shop whenever the chance presented itself anyway, just like the girl did her stand. In that respect, she understood the long-lived human. And besides, anyone who had the ability to fly would easily spot the smoke coming from the bamboo forest—or at least, manage to most of the time. There was still the question of whether or not the enigmatic Fujiwara no Mokou felt like selling yakitori that day after all. "There's a stand near Eientei, Mokou runs it… just fly above the bamboo forest and look for a trail of smoke ze."

"Really? Hmmm… I've still got an hour to go though…" Hong sighed, a little crestfallen. Then again, she'd been through worse… with a little patience, she should be free to head to the bamboo forest without getting Sakuya or anyone else in the Scarlet Mansion angry, and enjoy Fujiwara's delicious yakitori. _Thank goodness I still have some money left over…_

"Ah, that's too bad… I hope you reach her in time, ze."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"Well… you know how that girl can get, one second she's nice, the next she'll melt the scalp off of anyone who looks at her funny… the same thing goes with her stand ze. She's been running it all morning and chances are she'll be packing up any minute and who knows what day of the week she'll be running it again," Marisa said quietly, trying her best to sound sympathetic. Of course, she hadn't the slightest clue what Mokou's patterns were when it came to selling yakitori, nor did she know if the stand had even been up all morning… but, not knowing the truth made it a little easier to lie so, whatever worked.

"I see…" The red-haired youkai muttered, looking more and more disappointed by the second. It was just her luck to be treated to something great, only to have the chance to experience it again snatched away from her at the last minute. But then, it wasn't like the chance was completely taken away. She still could…

"Well, guess I should be heading back now," The blonde girl chirped, almost completely convinced that she had gotten to the lazy gatekeeper. Folding the leaf packaging and putting it in one of her skirt pockets, she smiled and made a dismissive little gesture. "See ya, Chuugoku."

"Oh… all right then, safe journey." The distracted Hong bowed her head with a sheepish smile, instinctively adjusting her beret. Now that she thought about it, there probably wasn't going to be any trouble today anyway. And it wasn't like she was going to be away from the gates for long…

Turning her back to the youkai and heading off, Marisa mentally applauded herself on a job well done… it didn't go exactly as she'd imagined it, but things still went better than she thought it would. Humming a happy tune, she counted several steps forward and walked a couple of steps more before stopping—sneaking a peek back at the gates with a sly expression on her face. Just as she'd expected, Chuugoku was nowhere to be seen. Looking up at the sky, she spotted the youkai heading towards the general direction of the bamboo forest, far enough to be a barely visible speck of green and red. She always knew the gatekeeper could be fast when she wanted to, but this would probably be enough to make even that nosy tengu look twice.

"Yoshi yosh… commencing sneaking mission ze!" The witch exclaimed as she tossed her broom up as high as she could, the magic infused object making three flips in the air before falling back down and slowing to a stop, hovering in front of her. There was no-one around to be impressed by that showy display of broom-handling skill, but she enjoyed doing it all the same. Dusting herself off before hopping back on the broom, she flew back to the mansion, trying to make as little noise as possible as she poked her head up over the walls to properly scan the garden. To her surprise it was actually a pretty busy sight… there were maids moving about, setting tables and fixing chairs scattered around the garden. Was there going to be a party soon? More importantly… why hadn't she gotten an invitation? Shaking those thoughts away for later, she looked around for any possible path to the mansion where she wouldn't be seen.

"Hm. They're everywhere ze…" Marisa frowned, unable to find a decent way in without a pretty big chance of being caught. Even the balcony, which was what she normally used to get into the mansion, had one of the maids setting what looked to be decorations there. Shrugging in slight disappointment, she put a hand in one of her skirt pockets and took out a bottle of transparent liquid. She was hoping to use this on Patchouli if ever she'd been caught in the library, but she supposed it couldn't be helped… besides, she wasn't planning on getting caught anyway. Spending the next several seconds deciding on which path was the easiest to take, Marisa took a deep breath, before finally pulling her potion's cork open and tossing the bottle to the far right of the garden.

Watching the potion spill out as it crashed onto one of the tables, the witch looked away as her unstable concoction burst into a near silent explosion of blue light which enveloped part of the garden. The contents itself had come from one of her failed attempts to compress destructive energy in a small bottle… the result was a powerful light, but did absolutely no damage at all. Satisfied with the help's frightened reaction to her 'bottled light', she immediately swooped down to the left side of the garden and stayed near the walls, being sure to steer clear of the distracted maids, before finally making a beeline to the side of the mansion just as the blue light died out. _Safe!_

The blonde witch let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she slowly turned the knob and opened the mansion's side door, making sure that there was no-one around in plain sight before slipping in without the slightest bit of noise, as the girl was still mounted on her broom. She normally used either the front doors or the balcony to get into the mansion (and one time through a wall near the balcony), so this was the first time she'd be going to the library from this area. It was a long barely lit hallway with doors littering the sides… she wasn't sure exactly how to get to the library from here, but she had the general idea because of the way houses are set up. For one, the door at the end of the hallway would most likely be a step in the right direction. Getting off of her broom as it would be too difficult to use in an enclosed area like this, the witch continued her so-called 'sneaking mission' on foot. "Creepy… this place could really use some windows ze."

Marisa had almost gotten through the hall when she picked up a pair of footsteps, getting louder and louder by the second. Instinctively standing still, she strained to hear where it was coming from only to hear another peculiar sound, this time of a knob being turned. Her eyes widening like saucers as she came to the conclusion that the door at the end of the hallway was opening, the witch quietly scrambled for one of the entrances to her right, only to find that it was locked. Almost flying into a panic, she went for the next possible door and bolted straight in as soon as she'd opened it, having maintained enough composure to keep the knob turned as she closed the door behind her so as not to make too much noise. She wasn't out of the woods yet though—keeping her guard up and scanning wherever she'd ended up in for maids and the like, the witch finally allowed herself a sigh of relief at the sight of the empty room. "Whew… I'm gettin' carried away with this stealth thing…"

Feeling secure for the moment, the blonde girl gave the room another good look. Although it was quite dark, she could still see and make out the chairs, a large closet, and what looked to be a desk in front of a chalkboard. Was this a classroom of some sort? She supposed that wasn't much of a surprise… this place did have a gigantic library, why not a classroom or three to complete the set? Still, it seemed a little strange… but then again everything was strange about the Scarlet Mansion. For one, the library was, at the very least, more than four times the size of the mansion itself, but it was still, inside somehow… she wasn't even sure what kind of magic went into the application of such a thing. _I'm sure I'll find out soon enough… just gotta keep borrowing those books._

Placing a hand on her hip, the witch considered taking more than a single book today, just in case she got lucky with a special secret grimoire or something equally valuable when her thoughts were interrupted by a cough—coming from inside the room. The hairs on the back of her neck standing instantly, she quickly turned to face the source of the sound, which she imagined had to have come from the direction of the desk and chalkboard. Before she could convince herself to investigate however, the same footsteps echoed from outside the door and she instinctively ran towards the opposite end of the room, near the closet. Her heart pounding furiously in her chest, Marisa silently begged whoever was outside to just walk past the hall so she could get out of this haunted classroom already—but, her luck just wouldn't have it.

To her dismay, the footsteps stopped right at the door, and yet again she was scrambling to look for a place to hide as it creaked open. Fortunately, the closet was right beside her and she was able to open it and jump right in, broom and all, managing to conceal herself again, just in time. Or was she? Perhaps the reason that person even entered the room in the first place was because they had seen something… either way, she had to keep quiet. Covering her mouth with both hands, she tried her best to calm down; her eyes wide open due to shooting adrenaline in the pitch black darkness of the closet. But, just as the witch had succeeded in gaining some of her bearings, she felt something which caused nearly every strand of hair on her body to rise and her heart to temporarily seize up in fear.

What felt like a little corpse's cold hand was now, holding onto her forearm with a firm grip…

_That's it, I'm gonna die,_ Marisa thought to herself, too stunned to rationalize her fear, helplessly going against her natural instincts and turning her head slowly to meet her fate. Not surprisingly, things didn't seem to get any better when she found herself staring into a pair of bright, blood red eyes. In fact, now felt like the perfect time to slip away from consciousness and faint into a heap. She was about to do just that when the menacing figure pulled her towards it, and she was able to make out the features of a young girl. Her forearm already free from its cold grip, she was still too scared to properly collect her thoughts as those scarlet eyes pierced through her own, a stern finger gesturing for her to stay silent. Naturally, she nodded.

It was only when the figure's nearly hypnotizing gaze left her, when the witch's common sense started to flood in, and the fear began to drain away fast. Putting two and two together, it didn't take her long to realize that this was either the mistress of the Scarlet Mansion or her extremely dangerous sister (she could still remember the pain); though the latter seemed less likely as her strange unnatural wings could be as bright as multi-colored stars at times. But even if she were right, it still didn't make much sense. Why stay in this stuffy place? _She's normally asleep at this time too…_

Not sure exactly what to say about the matter, Marisa watched thoughtfully as the figure slowly opened the closet, just wide enough to be able to see outside. Catching the faint bluish color of her hair thanks to what little light the room had, the witch was finally able to swallow most of her fears as she became convinced that it was indeed Remilia Scarlet. It was also just wide enough for her to steal a peek, and it wasn't long before Marisa had done just that, inching closer to the opening as her curiosity got the better of her.

At that point the witch had a lot of questions to ask, but common sense had stopped her from voicing out her concern, or making any other kind of noise for that matter. However, intrigue slowly began to replace confusion as she continued to stare out into the room. That elegant form, the silver head of hair which seemed perfectly visible even in the dark… it could be none other than Sakuya, Remilia's most obedient (and most stubborn) maid. Now that she thought about it, Marisa didn't know her very well, other than the fact that she was a perfectionist who didn't quite appreciate the witch's barging into the mansion. Her knives were something to watch out for—and her abilities were more often than not beyond even Marisa's imaginative grasp. _The heck is she doing here too?_

As if to answer her question, the elegant maid sighed tiredly, and took a seat on one of the classroom chairs. It didn't take long for the blonde girl to piece a bit of the puzzle together as Sakuya leaned forward, resting her head on the desk. Probably the reason why she was able to figure it out so quickly was because she could relate to the white-haired maid somehow… having to hide in this stuffy place just to catch a nap—it reminded her of her own efforts to cover up how hard she needed to work to keep up with Reimu and most of the youkai in Gensokyo. Not to mention, Sakuya was human. Raising her brow and instinctively shifting her attention towards the little vampire in the closet with her, she was treated to an even bigger surprise.

The same bright and menacing blood-red eyes which so easily bored holes right through her were replaced with a look of total and genuine concern—concern for the slumbering maid. It caught the witch off guard, as she had never really seen Remilia look so troubled. Of course all it did was raise more questions; but at the very least, it was another piece to this puzzling mystery. Marisa couldn't help but ponder for a couple of seconds more before her thoughts were interrupted by Remilia's pushing the cabinet door wide open. With a firm poke on her back, the witch quickly got out of the closet as the mistress of the mansion stepped out as well and dusted herself off. Gesturing again for the witch to stay quiet, the Scarlet mistress floated silently to the classroom door, opening it and beckoning the blonde girl to follow suit before floating out.

_Guess I've got no choice,_ Marisa thought to herself as she nodded and made her way back to the hallway as well—but before she could make it out of the classroom the witch heard another small cough. This time, she fought her fear and quickly turned her head to face the direction of the noise… but for what seemed like the hundredth time today she would wish she hadn't. Her eyes could only widen as a small part of the chalkboard grew jet-black, slowly forming a sinister looking shadow. Covering her mouth so she wouldn't yell out, she quickly stepped out of the classroom, letting out a sigh of relief as she stood beside Remilia Scarlet; though to be honest the situation didn't look any better. She wanted to ask what was going on, but she wasn't so sure she could do so without risking her life in the process. Besides, the vampire looked distracted, still staring at the open classroom door as though she was waiting for someone. _Unless that shadow…_

Bracing herself for what could happen next, Marisa fixed her gaze on the open door as the sinister-looking figure stepped out from the dark classroom—only to feel slightly embarrassed as it turned out to be the mansion's resident asthmatic magician, Patchouli. Now that she thought about it, camouflaging one's self in the dark should be easy for the 'One-Week Wizard'. _Talk about anti-climactic though._

Covering her mouth due to the dust which came from the old classroom, Patchouli stared Marisa in the eyes for a second or two as though to acknowledge her presence (however slightly), before closing the door and shifting her attention to Remilia, a questioning look on her face. "Ojou-sama."

Looking back at Remilia as well, Marisa thoughtfully took in her disposition, which had returned to what the witch was more used to—cold and devious. Oddly enough, she found herself wondering if she had simply imagined the expression on the vampire's face as they hid in the closet… it had been pretty dark after all. But after giving it some thought, Marisa shook her head. There was no way she could have been mistaken—she saw an entirely different person in that closet, even if it was only for a couple of seconds.

"Do it, Patchy."

"As you wish," Patchouli replied, opening her thick book to a particular page and resting a finger on the top segment of the leaf. Letting out another cough, the magician cleared her throat before quietly reciting the words of a spell, her finger glowing pale yellow as she finished. Stepping in front of the classroom door, Patchouli slowly traced her finger along its edges, levitating slightly so she could reach the upper part as well. Clearing her throat once again, she pressed her hand against the middle of the classroom door and spoke the final words of the spell. Nothing happened, but when her touch left the door, strange glowing characters appeared for a second on its surface before slowly fading away. "Done. So long as the room is undisturbed, Sakuya will remain in deep sleep."

"Good," Remilia nodded, unable to help but yawn and stretch. It was so difficult to be up during the day… but this was something she needed to take care of herself. And unfortunately, there was a lot more to do—like take out the trash. Breaking her thoughts away from the current troubling situation, her gaze fixated on the blonde witch, who seemed to shrink by the second as her eyes narrowed. Crossing her arms, she raised her chin proudly. "And why are _you_ here?"

"Ah… well, y'see…" Marisa gave her nose a little scratch as she thought of an answer—which was surprisingly hard to come up with at the moment. Due to unforeseen circumstances, her sneaking mission was a failure, and because of what had happened and the surprising turn of events she had temporarily forgotten why she had even snuck into the mansion in the first place. That, paired along with the older Scarlet sister's withering gaze, and it took all of five seconds for the witch to let out a sheepish grin and stop tripping over her words. "I just wanted to borrow a book ze… thought I'd sneak in this time."

"…I don't know why Patchy puts up with you," The vampire sneered, showing off one of her tiny fangs. To be frank she didn't really care about what Marisa was doing inside the mansion—she was a little angrier than she should be simply because the meddlesome witch happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This was a personal matter and she shouldn't have seen any of it. "And if you were going to the library, why were you in that lecture room of all places?"

"Well—

"You know what? I don't even want to know," Remilia waved her hand dismissively, turning her back on the witch with a childish pout. She didn't really have time to confuse herself with the strange logic of an insignificant human; she still needed to address the problem at hand after all. Letting out a sigh and walking towards the end of the hallway, she looked back to see Patchouli following closely behind her. "What do we do next?"

"Hrm. Actually Remi, I have an idea…"

Shaking her head and adjusting her hat, Marisa let out a breath she didn't know she was holding—still unsure of what to make of what just happened. To be totally honest, she was more than curious with what had transpired. If she had to take a guess it would be that Remilia was trying to catch Sakuya in the act. A lot of things still didn't fit, and the expression she had seen in the closet was intriguing to say the least. But she really, really wasn't in the mood to meddle… whatever it was that happened was their business (for now), and she still needed to find that book. Patiently, she waited for the two to leave the hallway before she would resume her journey to the library; then maybe she could pick up the sneaking mission from where she left off and still find a way to grab that book without getting caught (again).

However, before the two had reached the door at the end of the hallway, they stopped. Staring inquisitively at the two, Marisa placed a hand on her hip as Patchouli whispered something to the Scarlet mistress. Sub-consciously straining to hear what they were talking about, she noticed Remilia's wings stiffen, and the witch suddenly got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Her fears were confirmed when Remilia slowly turned her head to Marisa, a mischievous grin on her face. _Uh-oh… _

The little vampire spread her wings when she saw the witch turn around, obviously making a beeline to the nearest exit. With a devious chuckle, Remilia leapt forward and used her wings to propel her body upwards, flying above Marisa and landing right in front of her in one fell swoop, a smirk on her face. "Leaving so soon?"

"Errr…"

"Now… you don't think you could just break into my mansion and walk away unscathed, hm?" Remilia said as sweetly as she could, earning a nervous smile from the witch in question. It was times like these when she was glad she had Patchouli around. She could come up with some ridiculously wonderful ideas, and this time was no exception. "That is of course, unless you are willing to do a little something for me."

_Crap, I've done it now…_ The witch made an audible gulp as Remilia stared at her with those unnervingly piercing scarlet eyes. Weighing down her options, she looked behind her to find Patchouli walking back towards them, a little grin on her face. Marisa glared at her for a second before looking back at the vampire. Whatever it was Remilia was smiling about—and whatever the witch was obviously going to be forced to do—she just _knew_ that this whole thing had to have been the purple-haired magician's fault. "And what would that 'little something' be ze?"

"Simple really," Remilia replied in her trademark sing-song voice. This was going to be amusing at the very least. "All you have to do is impersonate Sakuya and deal with her chores for today. Accept this and I will relent from punishing you… further."

"Are you nuts? How am I supposed to do that?" Marisa said exasperatedly, finding the thought of working all day with absolutely no benefits to be down-right abrasive. There always had to be some reason, something productive with everything she did, and this _request_ just went completely against her nature. At the same time however, she knew how sadistic the vampire could be—and her punishment would likely be both painful and awkwardly embarrassing. She considered taking her mini-hakkero out of her pocket and blowing a hole through the mansion so she could escape—but suddenly, a mental image of Sakuya trying to catch some rest and Remilia's expression flashed in her mind. Why did she want her to do the maid's chores in the first place…? "Besides, I look nothin' like Sakuya…"

"I can fix that."

The witch stiffened up as she felt Patchouli's presence right behind her—the asthmatic magician's voice tickling the back of her neck. Every fiber in her body was screaming for her to escape now… "P-Patchy… can't we talk about this ze…?"

"Just look into my eyes and be quiet," The little vampire grinned maliciously, using a bit of her power to lock Marisa's gaze in place. Patchouli's idea hadn't even started yet and she was already having fun. It was quite obvious that the witch wanted nothing to do with this—and that was what made it so entertaining really. Though there was something odd about the blonde human she didn't quite get. Among all of them, Marisa's scent was the strongest and most obvious, but at the same time… she smelled strangely delicate and enthralling. Fortunately, Remilia quickly shook away such thoughts before it could get any worse. It was the day-time, so this lack of control was understandable… but she wouldn't resort to stooping so low as to drink Marisa's blood—who knows what weird illness she might contract if she did! "Relax…"

"Ng…" Marisa stared deeply into Remilia's blood-red eyes, unable to take her gaze off her as… strange things started to happen. She could hear Patchouli murmuring another spell behind her, but she could have just as well been hundreds of feet away. She felt chills up her spine, through her arms, her legs and even the more… sensitive areas. Unable to help but fidget and rub her thighs against each other, Marisa grit her teeth and found the strength to shut her eyes as something ticklish and strange flooded her body, a deep blush forming on her cheeks in consequence. Whatever it was that was happening, she didn't like it one bit… "Ah… a-ah… the… the hell is… ng…"

And just like that, the strange and overwhelming feeling that took hold of her body was gone.

Landing on her knees, Marisa panted softly as she tried to regain her composure, the blush still present on her face. "What… did you guys do to me ze…"

"Uhm… was it supposed to really go like that Patchy?" Remilia asked the purple-haired magician after a few seconds of awkward silence, a light blush on her face as well. Whatever it was Marisa had gone through seemed… uncomfortable, to say the least. The Scarlet mistress' innate curiosity obvious in her wide eyes, she really couldn't help but wonder what it felt like. All those odd noises Marisa was making…

"I… guess so. This is the first time I've ever tried this spell," Patchouli answered calmly, her book covering almost all of her face. Truth be told, seeing (and hearing) Marisa like that had caught her completely off-guard, which was why she was holding her book that way in the first place—to hide the deep blush which had mercilessly flooded her cheeks. As for why it had affected her so much, she did not have the slightest clue. Maybe her asthma was just manifesting itself in other, weirder ways… yes, that was probably it. "At least it was successful."

Blinking a few times, Remilia looked down at the witch, who seemed to be staring at her silver hair in slight shock. The process itself had looked so… exciting that she had temporarily forgotten why it was happening in the first place. Slowly taking off Marisa's hat, she was still more than a little surprised to see Sakuya staring right back at her—though her hair was still long. In a respectful act that surprised even the vampire, she gently took the witch's hand and helped her up. _Sakuya would look pretty good in long hair. _"Not bad."

"Whoa… I feel weird—uwa! Is that my voice?" Marisa covered her mouth in alarm, not used to the fact that she was now the spitting image of the Scarlet Mansion's chief maid. This was too strange… and oh so very creepy. It felt absolutely wrong on so many levels. She felt different, but the same! She looked at her hands and felt like it didn't belong to her… and her flowing silver hair gave her the chills. "This kinda freaky magic should be locked up in a chest and thrown off a cliff ze!"

"I'll take that as a compliment," Patchouli smiled sweetly, more proud of herself than she realized. "However, there is one thing that's a bit off. Or should I say two things?"

"What?"

Remilia looked at the asthmatic magician for a second, before shifting her gaze back to Marisa and scanning the changed girl's features with her sharp eyesight. Almost immediately she picked up on what Patchouli was talking about, and nodded. "Ah… those. You're right, Sakuya's are bigger."

Raising a brow in confusion, the transformed magician digested the vampire's words. There were two things off? And that Sakuya's were bigger? It didn't take her long to realize what exactly those two features were, especially since Remilia was looking straight at it. A blush of embarrassment rushing to her cheeks, Marisa quickly covered up her chest, a furious look on her face. "So what if they're smaller huh?"

"You're of no use to me if you can't pass off as Sakuya completely," The vampire replied, unable understand why the witch was so offended. Having an under-developed chest was no big deal… there was no real advantage to be had from having bigger breasts anyway. In this case however, it was needed. "Anything you can do, Patchy?"

"Well—

"Oh no, I'll _fix_ this myself ze!" Marisa exclaimed, her distinct mannerism sounding more and more awkward the more she repeated it. Stuffing her hand into one of her pockets, she took out two bags of tea which she had been saving for a special occasion and placed it on her chest for good measure—but it was obviously too small. With a hint of desperation and embarrassment she dropped the pouches and rummaged around her dress pockets for anything that could emulate the size of the original Sakuya's chest. However, every item she pulled out seemed unable to do the trick. "Tsk! There has to be something in here…"

"If you would let me finish," Patchouli cleared her throat, finding it a little strange that the witch was so afraid of her chest size being _manipulated_ by her magic. It seemed as though she was both insecure and stubbornly prideful that her body had not bloomed completely. But then again, she was still young. Considering how fast humans age, it was only a matter of time before Marisa's body wholly matured—which was as far as she was willing to ponder on the subject. "I was simply going to suggest wrapping a small pillow there or something."

"…Huh," Marisa stared at the asthmatic magician for a few seconds, caught off-guard by the lack of more awkward and embarrassing magic in her suggestion. Did she actually feel sorry for her? "That sounds okay I guess."

"Pillow or no, she'll need to dress right if she's going to fool anyone," Remilia stated plainly, a little disappointed that Patchouli's plan didn't involve anything that the witch would hate to partake in. Still, this whole situation alone was entertaining enough to keep her up for quite some time. "Patchy, bring her to Sakuya's room and get her into the proper clothes—oh hold on. Before any of that, let me do something about all that extra hair."

"What?" Marisa's eyes widened as the Scarlet mistress' wings tensed, right before she leapt forward and sliced the transformed girl's hair to shoulder length with her sharp claws—quietly bouncing off the ceiling and landing gracefully a few feet behind Patchouli. Curiously enough, the hair that had been sliced off returned to its original blonde color and wavy texture before it even hit the ground. Unable to help but stare at what used to be her hair on the floor, the witch made an audible gulp as she brought her attention back to a smirking Remilia. "That's not how you're going to turn me back to normal, is it?"

"Probably."

Patchouli stifled a cough. "Well, if all else fails."

**Stage 3 – Half-time! (Spell Card Obtained?)**

M/N: Oh man, it's nice to be back! I gotta apologize for not being around for so long… there were plenty of things to do and barely enough time to do it ze. In any case, I had to put my beloved journal on temporary hiatus for a long time, so it's pretty serious stuff. Who knows—I might even write about it here one day! For now I'll try my best to keep my busy routine from becoming too overwhelming so I can write the rest of this ze.

As for this stage, you'll have to stay tuned to find out what happens next, because Stage 3 is simply too long to keep in one chapter ze! In my honest opinion things are looking crazy awkward… hopefully my luck changes in the second half and I get that damn book, ugh.

Stuff that might need some translatin':

Ojou-sama – It's a very formal way of calling someone 'young lady', or 'mistress'. An important term to remember if you are currently living under the roof of a particularly snobby little vampire.

Anyways, that's it for now! Don't forget to throw a review my way if you feel like it, and if it's an angry one for being away for so long I probably deserve it, so yeah…

All right I gotta head out! See you guys later and always remember—it's not magic if it's not flashy, ze!


	4. Part of the family 2

"Remember, for each cup of rice you use the same amount of water along with just a little bit more," The red-haired demon stated plainly, taking out a small sack of rice from their storage chest and placing it on the sink. Never in a million years did she ever imagine a situation where she would actually be the one telling the chief maid of the Scarlet mansion what to do—after all, she was just a familiar in charge of keeping a part of the mansion's vast library in check. But then again, this was not actually the chief maid… from what her master had explained it seemed like the kind of complicated situation she would really rather not be a part of. "That way, it'll cook up just right."

"Yeah…" The false maid nodded, washing the cup before scooping up some rice from the sack and pouring it in the strange contraption the help so cleverly named a rice cooker. This was the first time she had ever seen one, so she was not really sure how it worked. Fortunately Remilia and Patchouli didn't just leave her to finish the chores without any kind of help, a familiar of the latter was instructed to follow her around and coach her whenever it was necessary. However, while the witch was grateful for Koakuma's presence she was still more than annoyed that she even had to do this in the first place. Using the same cup to pour some water on the gadget from the sink, she repeated the process four times like she had been told—trying not to get too bothered by the unnaturally clean scent of the clothes she had been forced to put on in order to complete the transformation. "So I wash it first right?"

"Right. Oh also, you can use as much water as you like when you clean it," Koakuma suggested, her absent-mindedness on the matter proof of the fact that she would rather be elsewhere. It didn't mean she disliked the blonde witch however. The way she would break into the mansion and borrow whatever book she wanted despite her master's protests—the demon actually saw her as a bit of an inspiration. Unfortunately her overall potential as a fighting familiar was quite low, so even if she did have the same mischievous cravings any demon would naturally be inclined to crave she was forced to obey youkai strong enough to control her. "You'll have to wash it a couple times too."

With another nod, Marisa poured as much water as she could before dipping her hand in and squeezing handfuls of uncooked rice so that any dirt would be absorbed by the water. This was not unlike how she would clean certain types of mushrooms, but that was simply because the effect of the experiment would be different when it was clean compared to using freshly picked mushrooms to blend into soups. When it came to food however, there was not much to it. It would be cooked, and that was that… the fact that she had to clean this rice over and over only served to annoy her as she saw it to be completely unnecessary. With the water already having taken a dirty white color, she drained it and filled the rice cooker once again, repeating the washing process. "Know what Patchy and Remi are doing?"

"Last I saw them, the master and mistress were working on the invitations I think," The low-level demon replied as she watched the chief-maid-for-a-day wash the rice, a bored look on her face. She thought about all the things she could be doing instead of helping Marisa out—sadly coming to the conclusion that this was definitely the most interesting thing she had been a part of in a while. If she had been a more ambitious demon she would probably find the whole situation to be a depressing one, but it just wasn't like her to brood. "To be honest with you, I think that was the first time I've ever seen the mistress helping around the house."

"Yeah? This must be some party then," The witch said thoughtfully, wondering if Remilia uncharacteristically helping with chores or even just being up during the daytime had anything to do with Patchouli sealing Sakuya inside that room. Even if it did though, there would only be plenty of new questions that would need answering. All she knew at the moment was the fact that she was working and that she would receive no reward for her efforts. "And speaking of invitations, I don't care if I never get one—I'm crashing the party and having a good time when all this is over ze."

"Now that would be interesting," Koakuma chuckled, her devilish nature tickled at the thought of Marisa causing trouble during the party. While it would almost certainly mean that she would have to help out in cleaning the mess that would undoubtedly be left in Marisa's wake, it was still worth seeing what trick the witch might have in store for the Scarlet Mansion this time around. Perhaps today would not be as boring as she thought. "What kind of tricks are you going for at the party—that's enough washing by the way."

"Well I was working on a kind of gas that would smell great for humans and disgusting to fairies, but I could try to work on a variation and make how it smells to certain people completely random ze," Marisa explained as she drained the cooker one final time. The gas was created mainly to ward off fairies from her house, and having two distinct smells for two distinct races was already difficult enough—but perhaps if she just went about it randomly with the gas as a base then her experiment would begin to show random features as well. She had actually taken the bottled 'fairy-be-gone' with her to the Scarlet Mansion, and while most of her things were left with her clothes this particular bottle was in her one and only skirt pocket. _Where does Sakuya hide her knives in this dress…?_ "The rice won't drain away completely."

"That's okay, use the same amount of water," The devil said, a small grin on her face as she imagined what a concoction like that could do to Remilia's party. It would certainly cause a lot of trouble and be a great experiment to start with. She imagined Hong would be particularly affected because her sense of smell was so acute. She just hoped that the gaseous experiment wouldn't stink when the devil caught wind of it. "Okay that'll do. All you have to do now is put the lid on and flick the switch."

"Lid and switch, got it," The false maid said, taking the lid and placing it on top of the cooker before flicking down the switch. In just a few seconds the rice cooker began to collect heat, which fascinated Marisa to a certain extent. "And that's all you have to do to cook rice?"

"Pretty much," Koakuma nodded, not surprised that Marisa was impressed. From what she could remember this was given to Hong by that human who sold trinkets from the outside world and then later repaired by the kappa the master hired. "We rarely cook rice because only the gate guard eats it, but during a party the stuff is indispensable you know?"

"This is some pretty advanced magic ze," The snow-haired witch said, bringing her face closer to the contraption and feeling the heat emanating from it. It did not need any kind of heat source, but it was connected to the wall from a thick, dark string. That was likely to be the conductor, but how exactly it worked seemed—at least to her more mechanical than magical, which she actually found more impressive. A mental image of Nitori working on something like this instantly came to mind. "It would probably be best if Reimu didn't see something like this."

"What makes you say that?"

Marisa shuddered. "There's no telling how lazy she would get if she ever got her hands on one of these… it's scary to think about ze."

**Unconventional Peace in Everyday Gensokyo (Ordinary Witch Saga), Stage 3.5: "Part of the family."**

"All right Koakuma, report."

"So far master, Marisa has washed the mistress's leftover dishes and clothes, cooked the rice and dusted most of the den," The devil reported, unable to help but wonder why she had to meet her master outside where the other maids were busy setting the tables for the party. It was a little strange because the head librarian rarely if ever stepped outside of the mansion. Normally, she was content in letting whole months pass by as she drowned herself in the books of the mansion library. Letting her thoughts distract her for a second, the demon still found it odd that the more books Patchouli finished reading the more unread ones seemed to just pop into existence in rows that had not been there the day before. Whatever magic was controlling the library was very powerful indeed to be able to compress so many books in a single space, even if the space itself was somehow larger than the mansion. "Not nearly as fast as Sakuya but we're making progress."

"That's exactly why I'm here and why the mistress is working on invitations," Patchouli nodded, having already expected the witch to make an underwhelming performance. However, while it certainly wasn't bad, it was not good either. Considering how much work Sakuya would get done in such a short amount of time it's a surprise Marisa had even managed a fraction of what the chief maid normally accomplished in a day."Without Sakuya things around here will definitely fall apart, so I'm needed to make sure that the tables and chairs are all accounted for and match the number of invitations. Where's Marisa?"

"Keep your bloomers on," The witch called out as she maneuvered her way through all the working fairy maids, before finally standing next to Koakuma, an annoyed frown on her face. The den had been incredibly large and spacey, and dusting it was a royal pain. She also disliked having both sides of her hair braided even if it technically was not really her hair. She missed her ribbon and the comfortable smell of her clothes and most especially her hat. If not for the fact that she was only going to get her original body back with Patchy's spell she would have taken her stuff and bolted out of here the second they left her alone—having Koakuma watching her did not exactly count as she wasn't any real threat. "Anyway, what are we doing outside? Can I go home now?"

"You say you want to go home but you've barely done any of Sakuya's work for the day," The asthmatic magician said, amused at the stressed out and disappointed face the witch was making. There really was no way Marisa could reach Sakuya's quota anyway, not without her powers. Even Remilia was helping out with some of her chores just so that the party can run smoothly. It had been a very long time since she had seen the mistress apply herself like this, so she did not want to ruin everything by making an angry Marisa storm off of the mansion with still so much work to do. "How's the outfit going?"

"We should have gone with the pillow," The false maid snorted, still sore that they had dropped the small pillow plan in favor of something that looked a little closer to home. But just because oranges looked a little more realistic than a pillow, did not mean that it was more comfortable. "These things are making me itch."

"You'll have to deal with that a little while longer," Patchouli sighed, trying not to cough as the flower arrangements on each table were beginning to trigger her allergies. Then again the simple sight of a flower would normally be enough for her to start coughing so the psychological aspect of her asthma was likely to blame in this situation as well. Knowledge of this did not change the fact that she would rather be inside where there was no stray pollen however. "I'm taking care of the party details so there's only one thing you can do out here—and that's to wake Meiling up."

"Wake her up huh?" The snow-haired witch stood on her toes and tilted her head to see the gate guardian napping as she sat on her wooden stool. _How does she do that without falling down?_

"Yes, just wake her. You'll probably have to be a little harsh about it as well—Sakuya used to cut Meiling some slack but these days she's been trying hard to keep her disciplined," The purple-haired magician continued, lifting her book to cover her nose as the sight of so many flowers was really beginning to bother her. To be honest if it were up to her she would just leave the red-headed youkai sleeping there, but if Marisa was going to make a good Sakuya then she needed to stick up to the chief maid's principles. Besides, Meiling could be as sharp as an arrow sometimes; she was more likely to question Sakuya letting her sleep through the day than just chalk it up to dumb luck. "…I'm heading inside."

"What of all the necessary party arrangements?" Koakuma asked, suddenly feeling like the entire chore had been passed down to her.

Patchouli made a dismissive gesture as she kept her nose covered by her book. "I can barely stand these flowers, so you do it. I'm going to go help with the baking."

"Yes master…" The demonic familiar nodded as the wings on her head tensed slightly, watching the purple-haired youkai make a beeline straight to the mansion. It seemed like all she was good for was to have bothersome chores passed down to. Shaking the thought away before it ended up completely distracting her form the matter at hand, she turned to one of the maids and gestured for the party's to-do list. Letting out a sigh, she looked back at Marisa. "You heard her. Come back to me when you're done."

"Yeah yeah," Marisa grumbled, heading towards the slumbering gate guardian. At least she wasn't the only person around here who was being ordered around (and loathing the fact completely). Placing her hands on her hips as she approached Chuugoku, she couldn't help but look behind the youkai to see if she was leaning on anything for support… the fact that she was not baffled the witch tremendously. "Oi, wake up."

No response.

"Wake up!"

No response at all.

"Wake up already!" Visibly annoyed, the false maid placed her hands on Chuugoku's shoulders, intent on shaking her. But before she could even start the gate guardian yelled out suddenly, her arms shooting up in fright as she was jolted awake. Marisa quickly snatched her arms back before she was caught in the youkai's instinctive reaction; however that would be the least of her worries. Chuugoku had brought her arms up so quickly that the air pressure from her innate youkai abilities had forced one of the oranges to pop out of the transformed witch's dress and land right on Meiling's lap. "Uuuh…"

"S-Sakuya! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…!" Hong tried to explain as she leaned backwards, bracing herself for a painful recourse when she suddenly noticed the orange on her lap. Suddenly, the image of it popping out of Sakuya's dress came to her as everything suddenly started to register in her sleep-muddled mind. She looked at Sakuya to find her frantically fixing her dress, before finally crossing her arms and looking at her quietly with wide, panicky eyes. "What's… the orange for?"

"…The orange is for you, anyway stay awake, see you," Marisa answered, her eyes still wide as saucers as she turned and walked back to Koakuma as fast as she could. Perhaps things could have been a little worse, but at the moment she could not think up of any situation as awful or as embarrassing as what had just played out moments ago. Arms still crossed and ignoring the gate guardian's calls, the witch reached Koakuma and bumped her shoulder to get her attention. "Uhm, I'm going to need another orange ze…"

"What? What are you talking about?" A grim realization slowly came upon the demon as she pieced things together, looking behind the wide-eyed Marisa to find the gate guard walking towards them—orange in hand. "Ah. You'd best go on inside and help the master bake. I'll distract her somehow."

"Thanks."

"At least you make things a little more interesting around here," Koakuma smirked, helping the witch relax a little. She even smirked back before continuing on to the mansion. Shifting her attention to the suspicious youkai following the false maid, the demon brought her hand up and gestured for her to come. She had a lot of work ahead of her, and with Hong's help, perhaps she would not have to do any of it after all. "Good good you're awake. We're a bit swamped with work, so here's what I want you to do…"

Entering from the front door, it did not take too long for Marisa to find the kitchen where Patchouli had gone to help with baking. The Scarlet Mansion may have been a gigantic place, but when it came to areas such as the maid's quarters or the kitchen, it was uninterestingly easy to spot. Besides, if all else failed all she had to do was follow the yelling of a frustrated little vampire.

"Why won't this thing bake right?" Remilia growled in irritation, dumping yet another botched attempt at one of those cakes Sakuya would make effortlessly down the drain. She was covered with flour and all the other battle scars that came with baking pastries. "This oven is defective!"

"It isn't defective Remi," Patchouli answered calmly, trying not to let the situation stress her out. This was why she wanted Remilia to deal with the invitations and only with the invitations. At least she could be as creative as she wanted to be while writing down how great and wonderful she was. She figured this would keep the vampire busy for hours… she did not expect that the Scarlet mistress's lack of sleep would start to be a problem in the form of mood-swings. What's worse was the fact that she dismissed all the other maids to do something else while they baked. It was difficult to be angry at her though, after all she was trying hard. "We just have to follow Sakuya's written instructions precisely when baking a cake."

"But I was following!" The vampire yelled, pointing at the oven as though it were her most dangerous enemy. She had followed as much as she was willing to follow, and in her mind it was this oven that was the cause of all of her problems. "The oven is the one that isn't following directions!"

"Er, guys?" Marisa called, lifting her hand to interrupt the heated conversation. The two seemed surprised to see her at first, but that was likely because they had thought she was actually Sakuya for a second. "Not that I mind watching Remilia fail at baking, but can I have another orange? I kinda lost the other one."

"What? We're here breaking our backs trying to finish chores you're supposed to be doing and you just eat part of your outfit?" Remilia said, obviously exasperated as Patchouli sighed and went to get another orange from the fruit bowl. Her eyes becoming sharp as daggers, she looked at the transformed witch with a gaze that could make even elder youkai cower in fear—but surprisingly enough Marisa simply glared back. "You had better start taking this job a little more seriously, or else!"

"I didn't _eat_ anything!" The witch yelled back, right before catching an orange that the purple-haired magician had tossed her way. Turning her back to them and fixing the orange in her dress, Marisa returned her attention to the little vampire, still quite angry that she was pinning all of their problems on her. "It's a long story—and besides, you won't even tell me what the hell is going on! Why is Sakuya being kept in that room ze?"

"That is none of your business whatsoever!"

"Remi…"

"Then _why_ are you making all of this my damn business if I've got nothing to do with it?" Marisa yelled again, having had just about enough of the bratty vampire. "I've been impersonating Sakuya almost the whole afternoon and I don't even know why!"

"Nor am I telling you why until you do your job!"

"I am _not_ your servant and this is not a job because I ain't getting paid ze!"

"You insolent little…!" Her face almost as red as her eyes from anger, Remilia took one of the wooden spoons she had been using to prepare the cake and flung it toward Marisa in a childish rage.

The snow-haired witch reacted quickly, leaping to her right to dodge the spoon. However, just as she was about to take her mini-hakkero from her pocket she realized that her bottle of fairy-be-gone was no longer there. The comforting smell of honey and butter suddenly invading her senses, she quickly looked to where she had been standing before Remilia had thrown the spoon and found that her experiment had fallen off her pocket… the bottle had cracked wide open. "Tsk, I was saving that…"

"That smells a little weird," Remilia pointed out, her curiosity getting the better of her anger for the moment. Like her or not, Marisa's crazy experiments had an appealing effect on her, like a curious child watching a magic show where anything can happen. "What was that for?"

"Well it's supposed to ward fairies off and… wait a minute, what does it smell like to you?" Marisa couldn't help but ask, knowing that this was her best chance to figure out how her experiment affected vampires and youkai. She knew that it smelled good to humans and that fairies would find the smell utterly disgusting, but she had no idea how other races would react to it.

"Like my sister's room."

"Huh. How about you Patch—

Thud.

"Oh, that's what happens," Marisa mumbled as she saw the purple-haired magician crumple to the ground. Remilia quickly ran to her side and a genuine pang of fear suddenly crept into her subconscious as she realized that she might have actually done something to mortally affect the sickly youkai. Fortunately that didn't seem to be the case as she ran over to where Patchouli lay, kneeling next to the unconscious magician and taking her wrist. Instead she looked like she was sleeping soundly, and her pulse was strong. Needless to say, a wave or relief washed over the witch as these facts came to light. "It must act as a kind of sleeping gas when used on youkai…"

"I see."

"Okay listen," Marisa started, taking a deep breath and running a hand through her currently silver head of hair. Things were difficult already just working on chores; she didn't want it to get worse because of complications with Remilia. "It's obvious that the two of us don't get along too well, but if following orders is what it'll take to get my body back to normal then fine. For now you just take Patchy where she can sleep it off for a while and I'll see what I can do about baking the cake."

"…" Maybe it was the fact that the witch was speaking to her with Sakuya's voice, or perhaps it was because of Patchouli being caught in the crossfire of their argument, but for some crazy reason Remilia found herself actually agreeing with Marisa. She had her reasons for this entire situation, reasons she did not want to exactly confide to the witch because she did not trust her enough to do so (nor was it completely well thought out in the first place). At the same time however, the witch was making sense now and it would only frustrate her further to continue baking at this point. She might as well let Marisa have a shot at it while she got a little break. Quietly taking a piece of crumpled paper from the mess of ingredients on the table, she gave it to the witch before scooping Patchouli up and lifting her off the ground. "Sakuya wrote that, follow it to the letter. We don't have much time left until the party starts so don't mess up."

"Ordinary magician's guarantee," Marisa replied—trying to fight the urge to roll her eyes as Remilia took Patchouli out of the kitchen. Glad to finally be alone, the witch looked at the piece of paper containing the recipe for the cake she was supposed to bake. This was actually the very first time she would be baking a cake, so the witch was not exactly sure what to expect. Sure enough, the ingredients alone confused the heck out of her and the methods did not exactly help either. What exactly was sour cream and baking soda? 'Preparing the dough as one would prepare a biscuit'… she had no idea how to make the dough, and now she was expected to know how to make a biscuit as well? Sakuya had probably written this down to help herself remember certain methods instead of actually helping people who had no idea how to bake anything. Preheating the oven seemed to be a complicated process as well… there were so many different measurements and numbers that she hadn't the slightest idea where to begin. _Okay okay, just gather my thoughts… first thing I gotta do is figure out what sour cream is._

Looking around what she had to work with, at least most if not all of the ingredients have already been laid out… all she had to do now was figure out which one was which. Singling out all of the ingredients that had the texture of cream, she dipped the tip of her finger in one and gave it a taste. The first one tasted like milk, so that couldn't be it. Repeating the process with the second bowl, she tasted… and tasted again. Actually, the second bowl was the strawberry filling, she just felt like having some. "Mm…"

Dipping her finger on the third bowl, she tasted it and immediately made a strange face. That was most definitely the sour cream. Shuddering and moving the bowl of sour cream away from the others, she read the recipe again to find out how much of it she needed. One and a half cups… her eyes darting around the mess Remilia had made, she found the cup in record time, though it already had something in it. Washing off the remnant of… whatever it was before measuring the sour cream, the witch realized that she was actually having an easier time in this complete and utter mess of ingredients. Then again, it wasn't necessarily such a big surprise. She lived in a mess after all, and so found it much easier to search for things when they were scattered about instead of the other way around.

"Now… what the heck is baking soda?" The false maid stared at the ingredients, looking at what most closely resembled baking soda in her head. After a full minute of concentrating, she slowly came to the realization that she was familiar with just about every ingredient in the list except for the baking soda. Shaking her head in embarrassment, she simply took every bowl containing ingredients that she recognized away until she was left with two bowls that looked like flour. Letting out a sigh of resignation, Marisa wiped her finger on her dress to remove the excess strawberry filling and once again dipped the tip of her finger on one of the bowls of powder, giving it a taste. Just like she had expected, it was chalky and tasteless in a bad way. "Blegh…"

Bracing herself once more, Marisa did the same thing and tasted the second bowl. This time the texture was a little smoother, but it was still powdery and unpleasant—it just wasn't as awful as the first bowl. Scratching her head, Marisa looked at the piece of paper to see how much flour and baking soda she needed. The former needed three and a half cups, while the latter was just a teaspoonful. Still completely unsure over which ingredient was the right one, Marisa took the second bowl and started measuring three and a half cups. She figured that she would rather have more of the one that did not taste so awful and just a teaspoonful of that chalky stuff.

As for the method, she decided she would simply mix all of the measured ingredients up in a big bowl before putting it in a pan and baking it. Placing her mini hakkero on top of the oven in case she needed some extra heat to hurry things on, she had just about finished measuring the flour when a distant scream followed by a series of loud crashing noises came from outside the mansion. Distracted by the commotion for a second and tempted to go outside, the witch eventually quashed her powerful curiosity and concentrated on making her cake for the moment—she only hoped Koakuma was all right. Unfortunately it wouldn't be long before the craziness outside would follow her in.

"Master!" Patchouli's familiar ran in, a look of complete alarm in her face as she scanned the area for the asthmatic magician. "Marisa, where's the master?"

"Whoa there, the heck is going on?" Marisa dropped the measuring cup and turned her full attention to the demon, suddenly feeling a little alarmed herself. Did Chuugoku get violent? She didn't expect the gate guard to become aggressive all because she was suspicious about Sakuya. _All because of that stupid orange…_ "Is it Chuugoku ze?"

"No no, it's not entirely her fault it's…" Koakuma closed her eyes and let in a deep breath. She needed to calm down if she was going to make any sense. "It's Sakuya. At first I thought it was you being ordered out of the mansion for some reason or other, but before I could say anything suddenly Meiling was telling her about how she shouldn't use fruit to hide and that she should be proud of her body or something… when Sakuya asked her what she was talking about Hong tried to _take the_ _oranges_."

"Oh crap."

"Any reasoning with Sakuya flew out the window there… I ran here to get the master while she was busy hurling Meiling through the gate," Koakuma explained, the alarm in her voice returning. Sakuya would most definitely start looking for answers, especially since she could have sworn that the chief maid saw her running into the mansion. That particular human was certainly not someone to mess around with. Even if this had all been a part of Remilia's plan; if the mistress or the master was not around to explain it then things were simply going to get worse. "Now where is the master so we can get her to explain?"

"She's asleep and probably won't be up for a while…" Marisa trailed off, her eyes widening. It was her fairy-be-gone bottle! When Patchouli got knocked out the spell keeping Sakuya in a deep sleep probably fizzled out as well. Allowing herself to hope, Marisa quickly looked down to see that her braids were… still silver. Well, she was still right about the first part. "It's kind of my fault ze."

"What do you mean she's asleep? What about the mistress?"

"Well—

"You know what never mind," Koakuma interrupted, shaking her head and letting out another troubled sigh. This conversation was stretching out way too long—who knows what Sakuya would do if she were ever to see Marisa in this state. "The important thing is for you to hide because the real Sakuya could arrive at any moment!"

"…Too late ze…" Even if she hadn't said anything, the transformed witch's wide eyes were a clear indicator that the familiar had definitely been right about that.

"Uhm…" Slowly turning around, the red-haired demon found herself face to face with the real chief maid, who was staring quizzically at the false maid in the other side of the room. "S-Sakuya! What a surprise!"

"Koakuma," The real Sakuya turned her attention to the demon, her stare as sharp as the knives she carried around with her. She was not quite sure exactly what was going on, but Hong's delusional reaction had flipped her normally calm and patient demeanor all the way around. In fact nothing about this day was right at all. A ten minute rest had turned into a sleep lasting whole hours, which was outright impossible due to her control over time. Now Koakuma's suspicious behavior and the appearance of her double in the kitchen continued to push her temper to untested levels. Not to mention the fact that she very much disliked practical jokes and pranks. "You have something to do with this?"

"Well I… I can explain…" The familiar fumbled around with her words as she tried to come up with a convincing explanation of why everything turned out this way. Unfortunately, she honestly had no idea why the mistress did what she did. The only thing the familiar ever did was follow orders, which was exactly why several seconds passed with no viable answer. "You see…"

"I'll deal with you later," Sakuya said, not wanting to hear any more from the demon as she walked right past her and towards the doppelganger. She had plenty of work to do today, and because of everything that had happened she was way behind schedule. Needless to say, she was in a terrible mood and someone was going to pay. "Imposter… you would make a fool of me?"

"Wait! This wasn't even my idea—

"Enough. I don't want to hear your excuses either," The chief maid said in a low, dangerous voice. While she couldn't truly explain how she was able to sleep so long, everything else seemed to fit with the fact that the counterfeit was up to no good. All she wanted to do now was take care of this double so that she could start the arduous process of cleaning up the mess left in her wake and hopefully have everything ready before the mistress woke up. Brandishing one of her knives and a spell card with a sleight of hand trick that Marisa wordlessly found impressive, her eyes flashed a brilliant red for half a second. "This will be over before you know it."

_Tch…!_ At this point in time Marisa had already expected dozens of knives coming at her from every direction so she instantly braced herself, but instead something unexpected happened. Instead, the world became totally devoid of color, save for Sakuya. The surprised look on the chief maid's face, coupled with the fact that Koakuma was completely and utterly still could only mean one thing… Sakuya had brought time to a standstill, except for the two of them. _Patchy's magic must really be something if she was able to mimic some of Sakuya's powers as well…_ "Wow…"

"It seems as though you are not an ordinary imposter, are you?"

"I'm just an ordinary magician," The false maid said instinctively, looking back to where she had placed her mini-hakkero. She did not have time to completely think things through, but she had just dodged a very big bullet a moment ago. If she hadn't gone through the time stop along with Sakuya, she would have been in an impossible situation, because not only did she not have her broom, there was barely any space to dodge. Quickly reaching for her tiny reactor, the witch was shocked to find that she could not even lift it off the table. "…?"

"You think it's that easy to manipulate objects stopped by time?" Sakuya asked as she walked towards the fake, her voice cold as ice. It was difficult enough for her to use time to move her daggers around, and if ever she threw them, the daggers would only start moving when time resumed its course. Otherwise, there would be no battle that she could not possibly win. In fact she could see the residual slowing in the doppelganger's movement already—pretty soon she will be as still as everything else around her. "I just had a long rest so I can keep time still for as long as it would take to get rid of you—after all, I'd hate for this to be interrupted."

"Keh…" The false maid couldn't help but smile grimly as it became more and more difficult to move her body. It looked like Patchy's magic couldn't replicate Sakuya's image completely… but this was about as much as she could possibly hope for. All things considered, it was likely that she wasn't going to make it out of this alive; but that didn't mean she was out of tricks yet. Clutching the colorless mini-hakkero with all her might, she began to focus all the energy she had to kick start the little reactor. Her body finally becoming completely still as she brought her gaze to the chief maid, she continued to pour her energy into the mini-hakkero even as Sakuya loomed in front of her, poised to strike. _Come on… this has to work!_

"Disappear!"

Right before Sakuya's dagger could bite into Marisa's flesh, a splash of purple and red suddenly erupted from between the two of them, holding the chief maid's wrist still. She struggled to get out of it as the formless mess of colors began to take shape—both their eyes widening as large black wings sprouted from the mass. A few seconds passed in silence, as Sakuya found herself looking straight into the eyes of her mistress, who loosened her hold on the maid's wrist. "Ojou-sama…! I don't understand… how are you doing this while time stands still?"

Remilia looked back at the transformed witch and gave her a small nod before bringing her full attention to Sakuya. "Fate doesn't want Marisa to pass just yet it seems…"

"Marisa?" The snow-haired human repeated, utterly confused. She looked at the doppelganger behind her mistress who was almost completely colorless, except for her eyes. That could not be Marisa, could it? She did mention something about being an ordinary magician… "I really don't understand."

"…I was the one who had Patchy keep you in that room," The little vampire suddenly admitted, letting go of Sakuya's wrist. "I planned all of this."

"But why?" Sakuya asked, now even more confused than ever. Why did she order Patchy to keep her in that room—and how did they figure out where she snuck in to rest in the first place? Perhaps… she was being considered for replacement? Even though it wasn't in her to doubt her mistress's motives, Sakuya felt compelled to ask that one particular thing—a certain sadness passing over her eyes as she spoke. "…Don't you still need me?"

"O-of course I do!" Remilia snapped, not ever wanting Sakuya to feel as though that had been the reason. Feeling like a complete child, she could not even bring herself to look the chief maid in the eyes as she continued to explain. "It's just… you work too hard. You can't keep it up and… Patchy, she's starting to get worried… even Meiling; she told us you were taking fewer and fewer breaks. They're all worried… so I found out when you would head to that room from one of the fairies and…"

"And, you wanted me to rest today," Sakuya said, unable to help but smile as she pieced things together—she wanted her to rest while they took care of all the chores. When Remilia nodded, staring at the floor like a scolded child it was all she could take from scooping her up in an affectionate hug and squeezing her half to death. She never could have expected that everyone would be this worried over her well-being… but now she knew full well that the one who worried over her the most was the little vampire standing in front of her. She would also probably have to apologize to Koakuma and Hong, but there was still no reason why the latter would think she would be wearing fruits in her dress. Maybe the heat had finally gotten to her… she did warn Meiling about the dangers of falling asleep and suffering heat stroke. "Ojou-sama?"

"…Yes?"

The chief maid bent down, took the little vampires hands and kissed them, staring at her with a look of genuine love and appreciation. "Thank you very much for the thoughtful gesture. I'm well rested."

"…" For the first time today (or perhaps in a long time), the vampire was smiling widely, her cheeks flushed from a mix of embarrassment and relief. While things did not go exactly as planned, it all still seemed to work out in the end. "That's good."

"So the doppelganger is…?"

"Marisa, through Patchy's magic," Remilia turned to look at the false maid completely frozen by time, though her eyes were still completely aware. The vampire rarely if ever exhibited powers of fate, but she was glad that it happened when it did—otherwise, things would have been quite messy. "She volunteered."

If the witch had been able to speak she would have probably yelled something obscene at the Scarlet mistress. Unfortunately, she was only a witness. Also, why was her hand getting warmer and warmer?

"Really…? How sweet," Sakuya said sheepishly, wondering what might have happened if Remilia hadn't gone and stopped her from doing something… unfortunate. It would have definitely been a tragic misunderstanding. But just as she was about to apologize, she noticed the object the witch was clutching glow brighter and brighter. _So that's what she was doing a while ago…_ "Mistress, you might want to step back a little."

"What's going on?" Remilia asked as Sakuya lead her over to where Koakuma was standing. Looking back, she noticed a fierce bright light emanating from the witch's hand. Sakuya snapped her fingers, and suddenly the whole world had color again. She saw the false maid quickly stare at the glowing object and throw it in a panic—right before a bright shockwave from the object threw the witch off her feet and bounced her off the wall. "Well! That was… entertaining."

"Errr what just happened?" Koakuma muttered, suddenly feeling like she had just missed a whole lot even though she had just been standing there. The last she remembered was the original Sakuya walking towards Marisa, and then suddenly the mistress and the chief maid (or was it Marisa?) were right beside her while the chief maid (or was it Marisa?) was caught in an explosion. "Anyone?"

"Your… your fate powers are defective ze…" Marisa mumbled, right before slipping out of consciousness.

**Stage 3 – Closure… (Injury/Spell Card Obtained!) **

"…Mm…?"

"Finally awake I see."

Shaking her head, the witch gingerly propped herself up from the bed using her elbow. She had some bandages on her, and she did not feel particularly good. What the heck happened? Trying to collect her thoughts, suddenly everything came crashing down. Being caught up in Remilia and Patchouli's scheme, having to cook rice and dust so many different kinds of vases and décor, almost being killed by a vengeful chief maid—in fact the last thing she remembered was almost being killed by her own mini-hakkero… unless of course, she actually was dead. It certainly didn't feel like she was dead, nor did it feel like everything had been a dream. Realizing just then that someone had spoken to her, she looked to the source of the voice to find none other than Sakuya herself looking right back at her. "Ugh, my head… did I miss the party?"

"You were out a few hours, so just a bit," The snow-haired girl answered, unable to help but feel bad that she had been the cause of most of Marisa's trouble today. In fact she had worked extra hard to get everything up and ready in record time so that she could tend to the witch's injuries. No permanent damage, which did not surprise her in the slightest. The witch might have been human but she could take a youkai's beating and ask for seconds. Taking the book on the desk beside the bed, the chief maid offered it to her. "Here, this is for you. Patchouli said it was probably the book you wanted."

"Hm, really?" Marisa curiously took the book, opened it and read the first leaf. It started right where the book she had borrowed left off, with Susan and Rudolph's kiss. Suddenly she remembered that this was the reason she had gone to the Scarlet Mansion in the first place. Nodding and closing the book, Marisa blinked. How could that asthmatic magician know exactly what book she wanted even though she herself had almost completely forgotten that fact right around the time they turned her into a spitting image (almost) of Sakuya? Suddenly coming to the realization that she might still look like the chief maid, she quickly got a hold of her braided hair and sighed in utter relief when it was blonde. Returning her attention to the book, she smiled to herself. "I wonder how she guessed?"

"Because as soon as I realized that the first part of that book was gone, I knew you'd be back for the second," Patchouli stated, grinning as she stepped inside the room. "I could almost imagine the look on your face when you got to the part I spilled tea on."

"Yeah, talk about a cliffhanger ze…"

"I always knew you were a sucker for those kinds of stories," The purple-haired magician chuckled, sitting on the foot of the bed. All things considered, everything turned out pretty well. The mistress was able to properly convey how she was feeling to Sakuya, though she wished she had been there to see it. The party was going on as scheduled, and everyone was having fun. The only people missing now were the three of them. "Thanks for helping us out."

"Really… thank you Marisa. And I'm sorry for what happened earlier."

"Hah, it's okay. And I'd like to say it was my pleasure but…" Marisa scratched her head, letting out a chuckle as well. Even though she had a habit of taking books from her in a daily basis, she and Patchy were almost always in good terms. In a way, all the magicians around Gensokyo see eye to eye more often than not… and she was glad to be friends with the 'One-Week Wizard'—sometimes. "It'll probably be a while before I do you guys any more favors against my will ze."

Even Sakuya couldn't help but laugh with that one.

"Anyway," Patchouli stood up, smiling softly. "There's a nice warm bottle of sake and a couple of slices of cake with your name on it downstairs."

Marisa's eyes lit up like stars. "Seriously?"

"Mhm," The chief maid stood up as well, taking a small letter out of her pocket and handing it to the witch. "Here's your invitation. Shall we?"

"Heck yeah!"

M/N: Finally done with Stage 3! All's well that ends well huh? I'll admit things got pretty scary there, but Sakuya and even Remilia are pretty neat to hang out with if you catch'em in the right mood (Patchy goes without saying). That stunt Meiling pulled though… that's prooobably gonna start a rumor that Sakuya isn't going to be able to live down. Oh well, that's not my problem anymore ze~

All right as always, reviews are welcome and requests about characters you'd like to see in the next stage is open for discussion. I answered PeachDaisyAmy777's request (somewhat), since I put Patchy in here… well, I basically put everyone in the Scarlet Mansion in this one. Sorry it took so long to shell out though.

Can't help but wonder what else could possibly happen during such unconventional times of peace in Gensokyo~

Gokigen yo da ze!


End file.
